{"id":22804,"date":"2022-06-21T11:51:00","date_gmt":"2022-06-21T18:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=22804"},"modified":"2022-06-21T11:51:02","modified_gmt":"2022-06-21T18:51:02","slug":"neoliberal-macron-loses-parliamentary-majority-as-melenchon-led-left-surges-in-france","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2022\/06\/21\/neoliberal-macron-loses-parliamentary-majority-as-melenchon-led-left-surges-in-france\/","title":{"rendered":"Neoliberal Macron Loses Parliamentary Majority as M\u00e9lenchon-Led Left Surges in France"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Left-wing MP Jean-Luc M\u00e9lenchon, leader of the New Ecological and Social People’s Union, delivers a speech in Paris on June 19, 2022 after initial results came in during the second round of France’s parliamentary elections. (Photo: Bertrand Guay\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The president of far-right National Rally, meanwhile, celebrated a “historic breakthrough” as Le Pen’s xenophobic party won a record 89 seats.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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KENNY STANCIL<\/a> June 20, 2022 (CommonDreams.org)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

France’s new left-wing coalition<\/strong> picked up enough votes during Sunday’s legislative elections<\/a> to help deny President Emmanuel Macron the absolute majority he needed to ram through his unpopular austerity agenda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Macron’s neoliberal alliance Ensemble won the most seats in the National Assembly with 245 but fell well short of the 289 needed to control parliament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, the New Ecological and Social People’s Union (NUPES)\u2014the recently formed coalition<\/a> led by leftist MP Jean-Luc M\u00e9lenchon\u2014won 131 seats, more than doubling the combined number of representatives that its four parties had in 2017.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NUPES, which brings together M\u00e9lenchon’s France Unbowed, the center-left Socialist Party, French Communist Party, and Greens, campaigned on lowering the retirement age from 62 to 60, hiking the minimum wage, and freezing prices on essential products\u2014in sharp contrast to Macron’s alliance, which is trying to raise the retirement age to 65 and has reduced<\/a> the corporate tax rate, exacerbating economic inequality and insecurity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The rout of the presidential party is complete and no clear majority is in sight,” M\u00e9lenchon told<\/a> a cheering crowd of supporters in Paris on Sunday night. “It is the failure of Macronism and the moral failure of those who lecture us.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n