France’s left-wing New Popular Front (NFP) – a coalition of parties hastily formed after President Emmanuel Macron called a snap parliamentary election – looked set to win a shock victory over the far right and ruling centrists in Sunday’s vote.
If the initial estimates are confirmed, Macron will have to name a prime minister from the bloc. The initial estimates are usually accurate.
The NFP – which includes the Communist Party, the far-left France Unbowed, the Green Party and the Socialist Party – has not said who it will choose for prime minister. Some of its best-known figures are:
Jean-Luc Mélenchon, hard left France Unbowed party
Jean-Luc Mélenchon, 72, has been active in French left-wing politics for decades and has held ministerial positions in previous governments when he was a member of the Socialist Party.
He contested for the presidency in 2012, 2017 and 2022 and improved his score each time. In 2022, he came in third, just behind right-wing leader Marine Le Pen. Macron won that election.
A fiery speaker, Mélenchon is one of the most divisive figures in French politics, exciting some voters while intimidating others because of his unbridled tax-and-spend proposals, class warfare rhetoric and controversial foreign policy positions, particularly on Gaza. Critics accuse him of anti-Semitism, which he denies.
Marine Tondelier, leader of the Greens
Tondelier, 37, grew up in the northern French town of Hénin-Beaumont, known as a stronghold of the right-wing National Rally (RN) and its leader Le Pen.
Tondelier has a long record of opposing the R.N.
She was elected as an opposition member of the city’s municipal council in 2014. She documented her experiences working under the RN mayor and the repressive atmosphere created by the far-right administration in a 2017 book called “News from the Front.”
Tondelier was also elected to the Northern Regional Council in 2021, and the following year she became leader of France’s best-known ecologist party, the Greens.
Raphael Glucksmann, Socialist Party
Raphaël Glucksmann, 44, was the front-runner on the list of Socialist candidates in the European elections in early June. It received about 14% of the vote, slightly behind Macron’s Together group. It was seen as a sign of resurgence for the party that ruled France in previous decades but had recently fallen into electoral obscurity.
Glucksmann was educated at prestigious schools and pursued a career in journalism and broadcasting, after which he worked in a variety of fields, including as an adviser to then-Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili.
He advocates strong European support for Ukraine in its resistance against Russian aggression.
Laurent Berger, former CFDT trade union leader
Laurent Berger, 55, is the former head of the moderate CFDT, one of France’s main trade unions. He has a track record of staunch opposition to the RN.
Berger has said he does not want to become prime minister, but others on the left have put his name forward, saying he could be a unifying figure and a popular alternative to Mélenchon.
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