Major left-wing parties in France form 'Popular Front' to challenge Macron in snap polls

The four major left-wing parties in France have decided to create the "Popular Front" (NPF) to run in theelection and turn this into a "new chapter in the history of France." Together, they will campaign on a joint platform, fielding a single candidate in each constituency.

Following several challenging days of negotiations, the Socialist Party (PS), Greens, Communists, and France Unbowed (LFI), led by the hard-left firebrand Jean-Luc Mélenchon, said that they had achieved an agreement and will unveil their manifestos later on Friday.

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After forming the alliance Mélenchon took to social media to write“warmest congratulations and thanks to our negotiators who had four sleepless nights deciding the programme and candidates".

According to the coalition politicians, the agreed-upon objectives include reducing the retirement age, which President Emmanuel Macron raised in an unpopular move last year, indexing salaries to inflation, and imposing a wealth tax on the wealthy.

According to polls, the NPF, a reprise of the Nupes left-green coalition created for France's 2022 parliamentary elections, is unlikely to defeat Marine Le Pen's far-right National Rally (RN), which has about 33% of the vote.

Macron announcedsnap polls in France last Sunday,following his list's defeat in the European elections to the RN, which managed to earn less than half of the far-right party's total.The electionswill take place over two rounds on June 30 and July 7.

After its president, Éric Ciotti announced a surprising alliance with RN, infighting has persisted inside the center-right Les Républicains, the party of former presidents Jacques Chirac and Nicolas Sarkozy.

This led the other party leaders to vote Ciotti out on Wednesday. However, he claimed the next day that he was still party leader, dismissing the effort to remove him as unlawful "quibbles, little battles by mediocre people... who understand nothing".

Ciotti declared that he was contesting the legitimacy of his opponents' vote in court and referred to it as a "takeover" effort. Later on Friday, a Paris tribunal would review the matter, legal sources told Agence France-Presse.

(With inputs from agencies)