In a surprise triumph over the populist National Rally, France’s left-wing political alliance came first in Sunday’s final round of parliamentary elections. The New Popular Front coalition of leftists won 182 seats, President Emmanuel Macron’s party won 168 seats, and the National Rally and its allies won 143 seats.
Many in the Western media are celebrating the National Rally’s failure to secure a parliamentary majority. In some ways we agree that it is a good thing that the National Rally will not control all policy. For, while National Rally seeks to secure France’s borders, which is a desperate need, it is also economically statist and parochial and anti-American, which are regrettable. It cannot properly be called right-wing at all, let alone “far right,” which is the insult thrown at it by leftist legacy news media.
But the Left’s win is nothing to celebrate.
Led by left-wing stalwart Jean-Luc Melenchon, the victorious coalition demands to pick the next prime minister. This is a problem for many reasons, foremost among them the fact that Melenchon is a deeply unpleasant politician. He is a creature of the European Left’s fetishistic and deluded anti-Americanism. He seems to believe that America is the cause of most of the world’s ills. He despises NATO and sympathizes with Vladimir Putin and his imperial war against Ukraine. He is hostile toward Israel and Jews and has made numerous blatantly antisemitic remarks. Yet he is now a political kingmaker.
Melenchon’s policies are as ridiculous as they will prove damaging if implemented. The coalition has pledged to reverse Macron’s increase of the pension eligibility age from 60 to 64. It wants price controls on key goods, higher public sector wages, and expanded welfare benefits. The French economy is already weak, overburdened by taxes and regulations, runs a high fiscal deficit, and has a soaring debt-to-GDP ratio of 111%. Expanding benefits for an aging population amid economic sclerosis is a recipe for national failure.
The French Left has never shown much sensible restraint. It wants what it has long wanted, which is to extract benefits today at the expense of future generations. It indulges in the politics of emotion and protest rather than of logic and good governance.
Its pro-immigration policies also seem designed to ensure the National Rally keeps gaining popular support in advance of the 2027 presidential election. The Left opposes immigration controls and wants additional welfare benefits for migrants and new staff to process asylum claims.
The National Rally is furious that it has been defeated by the strategic voting orchestrated by an alliance of otherwise disparate political parties working to obstruct it. But it will now gather new supporters by spending the next three years pointing out the dysfunction of a divided government.
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Macron faces parliamentary opponents who despise him and wish to embarrass him. While he has recently shown robust support for Ukraine, he may be hesitant to use what little political capital he has left on that issue. It’s going to be a tough few years for the president.
But it’s going to be even tougher for the French people. France has chosen a mad Left instead of a populist Right. Even if delayed, the Right is surely now on the path to power.
