A sense of déjà vu? By breaking away from Labour, the party he once led, to launch a new political movement, Jeremy Corbyn is following in the footsteps of Jean-Luc Mélenchon, and openly accepts the comparison. The prominent left-wing British figure launched a new movement provisionally called Your Party on Thursday, July 24, together with MP Zarah Sultana.
This move is reminiscent of Mélenchon’s split from the Socialists in 2008 to create the Parti de Gauche (“Left Party”). At the time, Mélenchon declared he had “the ambition to reinvent the left.” Seventeen years later, Corbyn is no less bold: “It’s time for a new kind of political party – one that belongs to you.”
Mélenchon, now the figurehead of the radical left La France Insoumise (LFI) party, was quick to applaud the founding of Your Party. “Thank you, Jean-Luc! We are inspired by your success. Solidarity,” Corbyn wrote in French, in response to a congratulatory message from his French counterpart on X. “In 48 hours,” Mélenchon wrote, “an Angleterre Insoumise [‘England Unbowed’, a play on La France Insoumise] is emerging at the call of Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana. In 48 hours, 400,000 people have joined. The first condition for success is met: breaking with Labour, its lies, its neoliberalism, and its rotten links with Tony Blair, and moving forward autonomously and independently. Bravo Jeremy and Zarah! Bravo free English people!”
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