The Council of State confirms the classification of LFI as far left for the municipal elections

The Council of State confirmed in a decision issued on Friday the classification of La France Insoumise as “far-left” and that of UDR, Eric Ciotti’s party, as “far-right” for the March 2026 municipal elections, after being approached by the two political parties challenging this decision by the Ministry of the Interior.

“The Council of State considers, given the prevailing political situation for the 2026 municipal elections and the alliances observed for these elections, that neither the classification of LFI in the far-left ideological bloc, nor that of UDR in the far-right ideological bloc are tainted by a manifest error of assessment,” the highest administrative court stated in a press release published Friday evening.

The highest court thus validates the highly political labeling of Interior Minister Laurent Nunez, which provoked the ire of the non-conformists, who claim to be part of the “radical left” or the “left of rupture.” In 2024, LFI was classified as left-wing. “Our strategy and the orientations of our program have not changed since then,” said the national coordinator of the movement, Manuel Bompard, who views it as “a dishonest operation by the Interior Minister who wants to manipulate nuances to weaken La France Insoumise.”

This means that the results of the non-conformists in the municipal elections will be integrated into the far-left ideological bloc, one of the frameworks for interpreting results proposed by Beauvau, alongside the NPA and Lutte ouvrière. They will be distinct from the total left attributed to the socialists, communists, and ecologists.

This choice raised questions from numerous political science researchers and left-wing personalities, who point out that LFI is a reformist party, regardless of their program. “The far-left historically advocates for the abolishment of property rights, it doesn’t seem to me that rent control, which is also in the ecologists’ program, reveals that,” quipped the ecologist deputy Sabrina Sebaihi to l’Humanité.

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