Is it a "serious" platform, as the members of the left-wing Nouveau Front Populaire (NFP) alliance have asserted, or "just as much or even more (...) dangerous for the French economy," than that of the far-right Rassemblement National party (RN), as Patrick Martin, head of the MEDEF employer's federation, said in an interview with daily Le Figaro? The NFP's policy platform, put together in barely four days, was still being fine-tuned on Thursday, June 20, against a backdrop of discussions on how to balance its proposed budget, and the ongoing negotiations between the Parti Socialiste (PS), La France Insoumise (LFI, radical left), the Greens and the Parti Communiste (PCF). The manifesto was presented on Friday during a press conference.
At a time when arguments from the economic world and the government have poured in to denounce the platform as being synonymous with bankrupting the country, the left has staked its credibility on it. With one advantage, noted political scientist Rémi Lefebvre, "the government's strategy of emphasizing its unrealistic nature, on the figures, is turning the debate toward socio-economic issues, and that's in the left's best interest." For these parties, after spending most of the NFP negotiations discussing international issues – from Gaza to Ukraine – and the fight against anti-Semitism, these accusations of unrealism almost seem like a reprieve: A return to a classic left-right confrontation, in which the NPF's social messages can be brought to the fore.
It's not that these messages are very new: In their negotiations, LFI's partners were keen not to base their agreement on the platform of the New Popular, Environmental, and Social Union (NUPES) alliance, the left-wing coalition formed ahead of the 2022 parliamentary elections. The NUPES's program was itself derived from LFI founder Jean-Luc Mélenchon's presidential campaign platform. Nevertheless, the NFP's agreement stands in its continuity.
The Communists had the idea of drawing it up as a "legislature contract," a term their leader, Fabien Roussel, had already used in 2022. The LFI members proposed putting the measures into sequential order, prioritizing them in a way that narrows down the catalog drawn up two years ago. The idea of making it even briefer – 15 measures – was floated for a while, before being dropped. "15 measures is not enough to govern," explained Cyrielle Châtelain, the former president of the Greens MPs at the Assemblée Nationale, who referred to a need for "transparency with regard to voters."
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