About 30 people – nearly all men – have expressed an interest in taking on the far-right National Rally in next year’s ballot
At a Paris meeting hall this week, hundreds of leftwing voters braved a rainstorm to gather chanting: “Unity! Unity!”
They were celebrating the 90th anniversary of France’s Popular Front, a leftwing alliance that was formed in the 1930s amid fears that the far right could take power. But their concerns were more immediate.
A year before the 2027 French presidential election, Marine Le Pen’s far-right the National Rally (RN) – already the biggest single opposition party in parliament – is high in the polls. The party is closer to power than it has ever been before, and the business community that once shunned it is now openly meeting with senior party figures.
“Voters on the left want unity – so let’s cut the bullshit and build it,” said Danielle Simonnet, a Paris MP for the leftwing party L’Après, who said divisions would allow the far right to cement its gains.
