France Insoumise coordinator Manuel Bompard launched an appeal on Thursday, April 2 to ecologists and communists for a joint candidacy in the presidential election, in an interview with Le Parisien. “We propose to those who have remained faithful to the NFP program to form a new popular alliance: let’s make our candidacy in the presidential election a joint candidacy,” he declared, referring to the left-wing alliance for the 2024 legislative elections.
He called for an agreement “at the same time on the program” and on “the candidacies for senatorial and legislative elections”, with the establishment of a “political council to lead these two elections consistently.” Reflecting on the March municipal elections, he listed victorious agreements with the communists, and regretted that the head of the ecologists, Marine Tondelier, had then “chosen a privileged agreement with the Socialist Party.”
“I say to ecologists and communists: instead of repeating past mistakes, come and take your part in the decisive battle that is unfolding. Let’s mobilize before the summer,” pleaded Manuel Bompard. “In the National Assembly, the Insoumis, communists, and ecologists parliamentarians vote in the same way in the overwhelming majority of cases,” he further argued.
The insubordinate deputy clarified that beyond political forces, this proposal also addressed “trade unionists, associative activists, personalities from the world of art and culture” and “intellectuals,” with the aim of “turning the page of Macronism and defeating the far right.” “The National Rally is a threat. We will need a powerful popular mobilization to defeat it. We did it in 2024. We can do it again in 2027,” he added. The “momentum” is “on the side of the rupture line,” he defended.
For Tondelier, the ecologists will not rally behind a candidate from another party unless there is a primary. He estimated that the candidate of this “new popular alliance” should be “a figure whose experience, political depth, and determination are reference points.” “Jean-Luc Mélenchon undeniably has all these qualities,” he judged, adding that “La France insoumise will decide on its candidacy in due course.” However, he considered it possible for this candidate to be designated before the summer.
The future of this appeal from Manuel Bompard remains uncertain, as some advocate for a non-Mélenchonist left primary, including PS First Secretary Olivier Faure, despite the opposition of other socialist leaders.
Marine Tondelier also defends this primary process for appointing a common left candidate for 2027. On Thursday, she stated that the ecologists will only rally behind a non-ecologist candidate through a primary. “The only reason why the ecologists would support a candidate other than an ecologist in the presidential election is because that person would have won the primary,” she wrote in her manifesto for the primary, which she named “What we owe you.”
