Melenchon: France’s hard left candidate
Jean-Luc Melenchon, a fiery Communist-backed eurosceptic vowing to return “power to the people” as France’s next president, says he has mellowed after years spent giving the establishment a tongue-lashing. “I’m less of a hothead,” said the bespectacled 65-yearold in a recent interview. “I’m becoming a reassuring figure.” In an election season marked by widespread disillusionment with the political class, the head of La France Insoumise (France Unbowed) is now among the top four candidates in the April 23 first round of the two-stage vote.
Observers say strong debate performances showcasing a milder but still quick-witted Melenchon helped propel him into joint third place with the scandal-hit conservative candidate, Francois Fillon. Suddenly part of a close-fought four-way affair, they are nipping at the heels of joint frontrunners Marine Le Pen of the far-right National Front (FN) and centrist former Socialist Emmanuel Macron. The two leaders of the first round will go through to a runoff on May 7.
Melenchon “invented political stand-up. He’s become a showman,” said former Socialist Party colleague Julien Dray. “This style keeps him from being too harsh. He’s in teaching mode, the old professor giving lessons about the world and how to change it.” Melenchon also has an internet edge, boasting more than a million followers on Twitter and his own YouTube channel-a way to circumvent the traditional media, which he accuses of bias.
And he has turned heads with simultaneous appearances at campaign rallies using holograms, a technological first for a French presidential campaign and a sign of renewed vigor. With the Socialist Party split between leftist and reformist camps under President Francois Hollande, its 49-year-old candidate Benoit Hamon is languishing at distant fifth place in the polls.
For many, Melenchon, after emphatically refusing to ally himself with Hamon, has emerged as the main voice on the left. Often appearing at rallies wearing a Mao jacket, Melenchon speaks without notes as he rails against the “neoliberal” European Union and stumps for his tax-andspend agenda. But while he shares Le Pen’s animosity toward the EU-they are both currently MEPs-Melenchon is her polar opposite when it comes to immigration.
“Today as yesterday, I am delighted that France is a mix of races and all the children are our children,” he has said. An admirer of late Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez as well as Bolivian leader Evo Morales, he advocates a policy of non-alignment and wants France to withdraw from NATO. — AFP