French snap elections: Left-wing parties say reached agreement to team up

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00:00 Celebrations outside the headquarters of France's Ecologist Party as the left presented a united

00:06 front on Monday night, joining forces in order to challenge the far-right national rally

00:11 as well as President Emmanuel Macron's Together coalition.

00:16 We did it. We managed to reach an agreement.

00:20 The socialists, ecologists, communists and France Unbowed announced that they wanted

00:24 to put in place single candidates in each constituency for the legislative elections

00:30 on 30 June.

00:33 This means we will be working together to put forward joint candidates in the first

00:38 round of the parliamentary elections who will defend a programme that prioritises the urgent

00:44 social, ecological and democratic battles.

00:49 The unity comes as somewhat of a surprise. In October of last year, the socialists pulled

00:54 out of the Nupes alliance created ahead of the 2022 elections. That decision followed

01:00 the refusal of France Unbowed leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon and his inner circle to denounce

01:05 Hamas as a terrorist organisation after the October 7th attacks.

01:10 And just last month, Socialist First Secretary Olivier Faure accused Mélenchon of doing

01:16 everything to make an alliance impossible between left-wing parties. Speaking on Monday,

01:21 Faure seemed to have put those differences behind him.

01:27 We are a country rising up today and saying no to the far-right and yes to democracy,

01:33 yes to the left.

01:35 The union still need to hammer out a list of policies with many questions still unanswered.

01:40 One of those is who will lead the alliance. It was Mélenchon two years ago, but many

01:45 now argue that he is too divisive to lead the union. On Monday, Raphael Glucksmann,

01:51 who led the socialist list to third place in the recent European elections, suggested

01:56 that in the event of a left-wing victory, it should be former union leader Laurent Berger

02:01 named as prime minister.

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