Is La France Insoumise (LFI) a far-left party? According to France’s Interior Ministry, yes. In a document detailing the official labels used to define political parties in the March municipal elections, published on February 4, the ministry moved LFI from the “left” category, which includes the Socialist, Greens and Communists, to “far left,” which includes the Trotskyist party Lutte Ouvrière.
LFI founder Jean-Luc Mélenchon, furious, took to X to condemn the label as a practice used by a “banana republic,” claiming Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez was “disturbing the electoral public order” with a “Trump-style” move. “Since when does the interior minister decide on this kind of change? To satisfy whose demand, and why now?” Mélenchon wrote, in a rhetorical question loaded with insinuations. His lieutenant Manuel Bompard denounced the label as “manipulation,” while LFI lawmaker Ugo Bernalicis called it “a deliberate political act of destabilization.”
The new classification implies an equivalency between the LFI and the far-right Rassemblement National (RN) party, lending arguments to those people, notably supporters of President Emmanuel Macron, who have sought to exclude Mélenchon’s movement from the mainstream political spectrum and equate the two as “extremes.” LFI announced that it has filed an urgent appeal with the Council of State, France’s highest administrative court, which has one month to rule on the issue, as it falls under the rules for emergency proceedings. The court’s decision is crucial for LFI. The “far left” label could influence its chances in the 2027 presidential election, especially if Mélenchon were to reach the second round.
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