The Front National, the far right French political party, stood in 417 towns with more than 10,000 inhabitants and scored an average of 14.74%. To compare with the revolutionary left, LO stood in 200 places and the NPA in 130 or so. The FN scored over 30% in 25 places as well as winning in Henin-Beaumont with just over 50% and two other independent far right people supported by the FN did well, one winning in Orange and another leading on nearly 45% in Beziers. As for the success of the PG (Melenchon)-EELV (greens) alliance in Grenoble, Poitiers, Rennes and Palaiseau (southern commuter town near Paris) we have to be careful. The PG leadership says this shows you dont have to be allied with the PS on the first round as the PCF did in many places, that you can have an anti-government line. However the EELV itself rejects the idea of a profitable new strategy with the PG because lets remember they are part of the pro-austerity government and they ideologically accept a lot of the austerity package. Grenoble was already a EELV stronghold (15% last time). Obviously the PG would love the EELV to split from the government but this looks unlikely. The ruck with the PCF still needs to be resolved. What is most disappointing is the difficulty in France of allying the broad non-government left, the PCF and the PG (Front de gauche) with the rev left forces of a Leninist Trotskyist background like NPA and LO which have shown, even in a difficult election for the left , that there is still a periphery and many activists around them too that is even expressed electorally with many scores of between 5% and 10 % - albiet in a limited number of seats.
Posted on: Mon, 24 Mar 2014 15:30:04 +0000
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