The New Popular Front coalition, belonging to the left-wing movement in France, won the largest number of seats in the second round of elections, but did not achieve an absolute majority in Parliament, according to major polling centers on Sunday. The leader of the French left coalition, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, stated that French President Emmanuel Macron should invite French left parties to form the government. Mélenchon added after the preliminary results indicating the left coalition's advance in the French elections that "Macron has been defeated and must acknowledge that."
**Who is Jean-Luc Mélenchon?**
- He is 72 years old.
- He joined the French Socialist Party in 1976.
- He held several positions within the party, becoming a member of the French Senate in 1986.
- He founded his current party, La France Insoumise, in 2016 before running for president for the second time in the 2017 elections.
- He left teaching and journalism in the 1970s and briefly served as Minister of Education under Socialist Prime Minister Lionel Jospin, according to "BBC."
- He became a member of the National Assembly at age 35 and a legislator in the European Union in 2009.
- He ranked third behind Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen in the 2022 presidential elections, according to "Euronews."
Mélenchon has run for the French presidency three times:
- 2012: He received about 11% of the votes in the first round.
- 2017: He achieved a better result with around 19.6% of the votes.
- 2022: He received approximately 21.95% of the votes.
The New Popular Front’s leading position in polling results comes as a significant surprise that will prevent Marine Le Pen's National Rally party from forming a government. This outcome represents a major setback for the far-right, which had been expected to win by a comfortable margin before the left and center coalitions collaborated by withdrawing dozens of candidates from the electoral race to unite efforts against the National Rally.
Polls based on preliminary results indicated that the National Rally party is expected to come in third place. In his initial reaction, Jordan Bardella, the leader of the National Rally, described the cooperation among forces opposing his party as a "disgraceful alliance" that will paralyze France.
The parliament will be divided into three large groups with completely different agendas that have never collaborated before. President Emmanuel Macron called for early elections after his party suffered defeat in the European Parliament elections last month. Polls predicted that the left coalition, which includes the far-left, socialists, and greens, would secure between 172 and 215 seats out of 577. This result would be humiliating for Macron, as his centrist coalition is expected to come in second with a narrow margin, winning between 150 and 180 seats. National Rally is projected to secure between 115 and 155 seats.
