Hard-left Mélenchon launches 2027 campaign with broadside against National Rally
Melenchon used his first presidential campaign rally on Sunday to attack the National Rally, accusing the far-right party of promoting a form of “supremacism” that seeks to divide people “along ethnic and religious lines”.
Speaking in Saint-Denis, the largest city in the Paris suburbs and now a showcase for France Unbowed (LFI), Melenchon told supporters that the RN's project was rooted in a politics of hierarchy and division.
“In this emerging chaos, a new political project is taking root, amid the wars in the Middle East and Trumpism: this is what must be called supremacism, that is, a desire to establish a human hierarchy to dominate peoples by dividing them along ethnic and religious lines,” the LFI presidential candidate said.
“In France, supremacism is championed by the RN,” he added.
The rally, held outdoors in Place Victor Hugo in front of the Basilica of Saint-Denis, marked Melenchon's first major campaign gathering since the formal announcement of his candidacy in early May. Several thousand people attended the event, staged between the basilica – the burial place of France's kings – and the town hall, now run by LFI mayor Bally Bagayoko.
Posting on X, Melenchon estimated some 26,000 supporters and political allies were present at the event.
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'We are at home here'
Melenchon framed the campaign launch around his vision of a “New France” – younger, urbane, multicultural and socially connected – and strongly rejected criticism from the right and far right over the term.
Faced with this idea, he said, “those obsessed with race” had become inflamed, “projecting their communitarian neuroses onto us”.
He singled out RN president Jordan Bardella, describing him as a “staunch Trump supporter” and criticising his stance on nationality. “Mr Bardella even wants to abolish birthright citizenship,” Melenchon said.
Such a move would be an “anti-national crime”, he added, drawing applause as he declared: “Born in France, French!”
The LFI leader also embraced the country's immigrant heritage, citing Bagayoko, who had spoken before him. “We don't want to forget this because we're so happy about it: one in three French people is, in Bally's words, an heir to immigration,” Mélenchon said.
He paid tribute to previous generations who had helped build the country, telling the crowd: “We will not deny, ladies and gentlemen fascists, the sacrifices and love of our grandparents that allow us to be here in this country they helped build so much.”
“We are at home here!” he said – a phrase then taken up by the crowd.
Melenchon also sought to strike a confident note about the country's political instincts. “We believe in the intelligence of France – we believe that our country is not racist, our country is not fascist,” he said. Supporters attend a rally to launch the campaign of French leftist party France Unbowed (LFI) presidential candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon on Place Victor Hugo in Saint-Denis, a northern Paris suburb, on 7 June 2026. France votes in a presidential election scheduled for April 2027.
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A symbolic campaign start
The choice of Saint-Denis was highly deliberate. The city has become both a stronghold for LFI and a symbol of the social coalition Mélenchon hopes to mobilise in the presidential race.
Bagayoko's surprise first-round victory in the municipal elections made him one of the left's most closely watched new figures.
LFI had billed the rally as a moment to connect France's history with its changing future. Manuel Bompard, the party coordinator and Mélenchon's campaign manager, had said the event would not be “strictly programmatic”, but would instead outline the campaign's main themes.
The staging also played to one of Mélenchon's greatest strengths: the large-scale public speech. A seasoned orator, he was joined at the rally by prominent cultural figures including Annie Ernaux, winner of the 2022 Nobel Prize in Literature, and Eric Vuillard, winner of the 2017 Prix Goncourt.
France Unbowed are hoping to build on what they see as a strong campaign launch. Polls have put Melenchon at between 13 and 15 percent of first-round voting intentions, sometimes within reach of the second round.
LFI is also keen to contrast its organised campaign machine with the rest of the left, which remains divided over the question of a joint primary. The French Greens, led by Marine Tondelier, still support such a process, but it has struggled to gain momentum, with parts of the Socialist Party and Raphael Glucksmann refusing to take part.
Other contenders are due to rally supporters in the coming weeks, including Glucksmann on 13 June, ex-interior minister Bruno Retailleau on 20 June and former PM Edouard Philippe on 5 July.
Then comes a major legal date: on 7 July, the Paris Court of Appeal is due to rule in the National Rally corruption case, a decision that could shape Marine Le Pen's candidacy – or open the way for Bardella.