How can the left resist the far right's rise, symbolized by Donald Trump's return to power in the United States, Javier Milei's rise in Argentina, Geert Wilders' breakthrough victory in the Netherlands and the surge of the Rassemblement National (RN) in France? To answer this thorny question, the French left aims to rebuild a "progressive, humanist and environmentalist international," in the spirit of the major left-wing networks of decades past, the last of which was seen in the alter-globalization movement of the 2000s.

Hoping to rekindle that era, a network of French elected officials – MPs, MEPs, mayors and senators – is about to embark on a tour, through an initiative called La Digue ("The Dam"), to meet with political leaders, intellectuals and civil society figures. Their aim: to ask them "how they resist" and to build connections, ahead of the possibility of the RN coming to power. "Nothing seems to stop the momentum of identitarian neofascists. The forces opposite us are allied and powerful. They sustain the narratives they instill against critical thinking, science and everything that makes us democrats," said, on Tuesday, May 20, left-wing independent MP Pouria Amirshahi (formerly a Socialist, who now sits with the Greens in the Assemblée), who spearheaded the initiative and had once taken part in the alter-globalization movement.

You have 73.5% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only.