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The Front agreed to a common distribution of candidates andpolitical platform. The platform includes scrapping the2023 French pension reform law, increasingpublic sector salaries andwelfare benefits, raising theminimum wage by 14 percent, and freezing the price of basic food items and energy. This would be funded by reintroducing awealth tax, cancelling many tax breaks for the wealthy, and raisingincome tax on the highest earners. On other issues, such as foreign policy and European integration, the Front's policies are closer to the centre-left.
Pushing for a mobilization oforganized labour, political associations, and civil society, the Front received the largest number of seats in the 2024 legislative elections, gaining a relative majority in theNational Assembly with 182 members elected.La France Insoumise won the most seats out of all parties in the alliance, gaining 72 seats total.
On 9 June, the2024 European Parliament election in France took place, with exit polls indicating that theNational Rally had received twice as many votes asRenaissance, Macron's party, in what was described as a crushing defeat for the incumbent president.[3] The French left's main leaders warned that the far right was "at the door of power".[8]NUPES did not take part under one ballot but under many, and theSocialist Party returned as the largest part of the French left, ahead ofLa France Insoumise;[9] the Socialist Party rose from 6 to 14 percent, while La France Insoumise scored 10 percent.[10] Responding to his underperformance and tapping into the divided French left,[11] Macron dissolved the parliament to call forsnap elections, with the first round scheduled for 30 June and a second for 7 July.[12]
Poster inLe Havre in favor of the New Popular Front, claiming it is "the right tactic to go against the far right"
After the announcement of fresh elections, some called to renew NUPES and form a new left-wing alliance, amid the2024 French protests against the National Rally,[13] after its member parties had broken up over personal and policy disagreements,[14] from nuclear energy to the wars in Gaza and Ukraine.[9] Leftist politicianFrançois Ruffin called on all left-wing parties, includingthe Ecologists, to form apopular front.[15] Socialist Party leaderOlivier Faure called to "create a popular front against the far right" but dismissed the notion of the left allying itself with Macron and criticized his policies.[16]
On 10 June, the New Popular Front, also called the Ecological and Social Popular Front,[17] was announced with an intent to "build an alternative to Emmanuel Macron and fight the racist project of the extreme right" in the upcoming elections.[18][19][20] The alliance was formed in order to stop the far-right National Rally party from taking power.[14] The name intends to hark back on the oldPopular Front formed in the 1930s.[8][11][14] The alliance, which in addition to the main left-wing parties also includes several trade union and anti-racist groups,[8] agreed to a single joint slate of candidates going into the first round of the elections,[21] making the French left the strongest and main challenger to the National Rally.[9][22]
Initially, the Front did not designate a possible nextprime minister in the event of success in the legislative election. On 12 June,Jean-Luc Mélenchon was confident of being prime minister but added he was neither excluding nor imposing himself.[23] On 16 June, he expressed his willingness to step aside for the sake of unity, saying: "I will never be the problem. If you don't want me to be prime minister, I won't be."[9] On 22 June, Mélenchon stepped up to this responsibility, saying that it was agreed that the largest parliamentary group within the Front would present its candidate for prime minister.[24][25] ForRaphaël Glucksmann andCarole Delga, the left-wing candidate for prime minister would not be Mélenchon. After his 22 June speech, Mélenchon's figure was brandished by the National Rally and the presidential camp as a repellent.[26][27]
Several voices in the coalition opposed this hypothesis,[28][29] considering Mélenchon not unifying enough, in particularFabien Roussel,Clémentine Autain,François Hollande, andMarine Tondelier.[30] On 24 June, Mélenchon said he was not a candidate but that the prime minister would be fromLa France Insoumise. On 25 June,François Ruffin said Mélenchon impeded the Front.[31][32] Ruffin and Roussel said they were ready to take on this responsibility.[33][34]Valérie Rabault, the vice-president of theFrench National Assembly, said she was in favour of a female candidate, citing Delga, Clémentine Autain, and herself.[35] FormerCFDT leaderLaurent Berger was also proposed by Glucksmann andSandrine Rousseau.[36] On 22 June, a LegiTrack poll by OpinionWay-Vae Solis forLes Echos andRadio Classique showed that in the event of the Front's victory, the French would prefer a prime minister from the Socialist Party (at 44 percent) rather than from La France Insoumise (at 25 percent).[37]
Of the 546 candidates for the Front, 229 were from La France Insoumise, 175 from theSocialist Party, 92 fromthe Ecologists, and 50 from theFrench Communist Party,[9] reflecting the Socialist Party's resurgence.[10] After its establishment, polling showed that 25 to 28 percent of likely voters backed the Front, behind the 31 percent who supported the National Rally but ahead of Macron and his allies, estimated to be below 20 percent;[9] a mid-JuneIFOP poll similarly showed a gridlock situation, with the Front at 29 percent, behind the National Rally at 34 percent and the presidential camp at 22 percent.[2] In the first round, the Front finished five points behind the National Rally, with Macron and his allies coming a distant third.[14] According to a tracker from theFinancial Times, the Front had the second most first-place finishes (156) after the National Rally (296) and before the presidential camp (65). Among these who finished second, the Front had 158 candidates, compared to 154 for Macron's camp and the 117 of the National Rally. Overall, as many as 85 candidates had cleared the 50 percent threshold to win election in the first round, and 291 third-place candidates across the three leading blocs qualified for the second round.[38] Afterwards, attempts were made to build aRepublican Front, asking their candidates from three-way races to drop out in order to reduce the likelihood of a National Rally victory in therunoff election.[14]
The Front soon made clear it was willing to withdraw its candidate and support the presidential camp against the far-right where it had little likelihood of victory. In turn, the presidential camp offered to do the same, although Macron's indications were less clear. During the electoral campaign, Macron focused on attacking the left and said that as a general rule his coalition would also withdraw its candidates who had finished third but not always; for example, he said he would evaluate cases where candidates from La France Insoumise came second on an individual basis. Several voters and French newspapers, includingLibération andL'Humanité, criticized the presidential camp for this ambiguity.[39] As of 5 July 2024, this Republican Front resulted in the withdrawal of more than 130 of the Front's candidates, along with about 80 candidates of Macron's party and presidential camp. As a result, the Front made it harder for the National Rally to achieve anabsolute majority, with the latest polls indicating that while the National Rally was still well positioned to win the most seats in the National Assembly, it might fall short of the 289 needed for an absolute majority.[14]
This section needs to beupdated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.(October 2025)
According to the final results, the Front obtained 182 seats, ahead of Ensemble with 168 seats and the National Rally plus a minority ofThe Republicans with 143 seats. Compared to 2022, the Front made significant gains both in terms of votes in the first round and in the number of seats compared to NUPES.[40] On 12 July 2024, a group of dissidents from La France Insoumise announced the formation of a new party namedL'Après. The party claimed to be "in service of the New Popular Front".[41]
After thefall of Michael Barnier's government in December 2024, Macron met with the Socialist Party, Ecologists, and Communist Party in talks to propose a solution to the political deadlock. Originally meeting with Olivier Faure, the talks were criticised by Mélenchon for breaking with the alliance's line.[42][43]
The Front is described as a broadleft-wing alliance,[2] withcentre-left tofar-left factions.[3] On 14 June, the left-wing party leaders met at a conference centre near the National Assembly to explain in greater detail the 150 measures of Front's political platform, and contains some changes from the 2022 NUPES programme.[10] While the Front has been referred to as far-left by its critics, including Macron and the far-right, its political programme is described by scholars as left-wing.[86][c]Le Monde summarized the Front's political platform as being to the left ofRaphaël Glucksmann and to the right ofLa France Insoumise, with a programme that included left-wing positions on economic and social issues that are shared by all parties but also foreign policy proposals closer to the centre-left and theSocialist Party.[94][95]
The Front's plan is divided into three phases:[10]
The first fifteen days of the Front's government would see a slate of emergency measures, including an increase in after-tax minimum wage to €1,600 per month, price freezes on necessities and energy bills, investment in social housing, and a rejection of deficit spending rules.
The first 100 days would lay the groundwork for proposed changes through five legislative packages covering purchasing power, education, healthcare, ecological planning, and the "abolition of billionaire privileges".
The months beyond, or transformations, which would foresee the sustainable reinforcement of public services, the right to housing, green reindustrialization, police and criminal justice reforms, and constitutional changes leading to the founding of aFrench Sixth Republic.
The Front supports aretirement age of 60 and the repeal of the controversial2023 French pension reform law and reverse the unpopular reform of unemployment benefits pushed by Macron's government.[8] The Front also supports introduction ofmenstrual leave,[97] and a 14 percent increase in theminimum wage, adjusting salaries and pensions with the inflation rate and freezing food and energy prices to boost the purchasing power of its citizens.[8] Additionally, the Front would re-introduce thesolidarity tax on wealth that had been abolished in 2017 by Macron's government, as well as introduce a new tax on excess profits, and raising theGeneralized Social Contribution paid by the richest taxpayers.[98] In contrast to the criticized economic policies of theNational Rally even asMarine Le Pen reassured business, the Front described its economic plans as more responsible because its increased spending would be paid for by billions of euros in planned tax rises.Olivier Faure, theSocialist Party leader, said: "We will finance this programme by dipping into the pockets of those who can most afford it."[99]
The Front supports Ukraine and its defense against Russian aggression,[8] includingmilitary aid, calling upon France and the West to support Ukraine more, while committing against any direct intervention by the French military.[102][103] It also supports cancelling debt and seizing assets in France ofRussian oligarchs.[10] Within the framework of atwo-state solution, the Front's platform calls for France torecognize the State of Palestine,[97] and enforce an arms embargo against Israel,[104] while it describes the7 October attacks as terrorist massacres.[8][10] The platform opposes war, antisemitism,[103] Islamophobia,[14] the hostage situation,[8] and Hamas' theocracy.[103]
In contrast to the far-right, which proposed to drastically cut immigration, the Front pledged to make the asylum process more generous and smooth,[14] reversing the 2023 immigration law.[95]
On 11 June, Kamel Chibli, aSocialist Party member and the vice president of theOccitanie region, opposed the agreement, accusing it of being aNUPES 2.[106] Former French presidentFrançois Hollande, who had been an opponent of NUPES and La France Insoumise,[9] announced that he supported the Front,[107] and was later confirmed as a candidate for the alliance inCorrèze's 1st constituency, a seat he had held from 1988 until his election to the presidency in 2012.[108]Raphaël Glucksmann, leader ofPlace Publique andmember of the European Parliament who was initially cautious about supporting the alliance,[109] ultimately announced his support of it on 14 June.[110]
The socialist magazineJacobin praised the surprising reunion of the left-wing forces after internal competition in the European elections,[10] and analyzed the controversial decision byLa France Insoumise to purge certain candidates, which ignited significant internal criticism. Candidates likeAlexis Corbière andRaquel Garrido argued for reconciliation with other left-wing forces. Party leaderJean-Luc Mélenchon faced backlash from both members and allies, who said the move was autocratic and damaged party unity. Critics contended that the purge was an attempt to centralize power and stifle dissenting voices within the party. This internal conflict highlighted broader issues within the Front, as the need for unity against the far-right was undermined by such divisive actions, threatening the effectiveness and cohesion of the left-wing alliance.[111]
French presidentEmmanuel Macron and its coalition focused on attacking the Front more than theNational Rally, hoping to split the vote of the French left.[9][22] Some observers criticized this strategy, calling it confusing and controversial,[112] as France has a long history of Republican fronts andcordon sanitaire, where all democratic political forces try to collaborate to stem the rise of the far-right. According to some critics, by attacking the French left and the Front over the National Rally, Macron was helping the far-right advance rather than opposing it.[22][113] For example, some of Macron's reactions, such as criticism of the Front for advocating a pro-immigration programme, were seen as echoing the far-right's talking points and rhetoric.[114] Macron further criticized some of their proposals, such as allowing trans people to record their gender change on their marital status by visiting the town hall.[113][115]
Former French prime ministerManuel Valls, a former member of the Socialist Party who had joinedRenaissance and was an opponent of NUPES in 2022, denounced the agreement.[116]Bruno Le Maire, theMinister of Economics and Finance and member of Renaissance, criticized the practicality of the Front's programme.[117] French prime ministerGabriel Attal, also of Renaissance, called the Front "an agreement of shame".[118] Macron judged the Front's programme to be four-time worse than the National Rally's, saying that there would be "no more laïcité, they will go back on the immigration law, and there are things that are completely grotesque like changing your gender at the town hall."[119]
Volt France, a liberalEurofederalist party, criticized the agreement, and echoed Glucksmann's call for another front uniting all republican andpro-European forces.[120] Guillaume Lacroix, the leader of theRadical Party of the Left, announced that while his party was not part of the agreement,[121] they would support "left-wing [candidates] who share its republican, secular and universalist values as well as all Republican candidates capable of beating the [National Rally]."[122]Cap21 proposed uniting the left, centre and ecologists.[85]Unser Land, which is a member ofRégions et Peuples Solidaires along with theBreton Democratic Union andEuskal Herria Bai, announced an independent candidacy, saying that only their candidates support "an autonomous Alsace in a federal France" and that "Macron is aJacobin, Le Pen and Mélenchon even more so".[123]
^TheMinistry of the Interior refers to the Front's candidates as the Union of the Left (French:Union de la Gauche).[1]
^The Ministry of the Interior refers to the Front's candidates as the Union of the Left (French:Union de la Gauche).[1] Other names used for the New Popular Front include the abbreviated form of Popular Front (French:Front populaire, FP).[4]
^During the electoral campaign, both the presidential camp and the far right described the Front as far left, owing it to La France Insoumise and now applying it to the Front as a whole.[87][88][89] There is no clear consensus among scholars on the far-left and its definition,[90] with some scholars using different definitions but agreeing that there are differences and pluralism within it. According to political science researcher Christine Pina, what distinguishes the mainstream left from the far-left (where despite the oppositions and differences in militant cultures betweenTrotskyists,Maoists, andlibertarian socialists oranarchists, they all share three common denominators that distinguish them from the mainstream left) is that the far-left proposes a sort ofmaximum programme.[86] In the words of historian Aurélien Dubuisson (associate researcher at The Sciences Po Centre for History and author ofThe Far Left in France published by the Blaise Pascal University Press) and sociologist Paolo Stuppia (member of the European Centre for Sociology and Political Science), "[w]hile admitting immediate and transitory requests such as that of a better sharing of added value for the benefit of employees, the 'far-left' defends above all a maximalist programme in which the abolition of the capitalist model (today we also speak of fossil capital) occupies a central place. ... However, none on the left, including La France Insoumise, despite its radical criticisms of economic neoliberalism, defends such a process which would consist in a transformation of positive law to organise, even gradually, the disappearance of capitalist exploitation and the competition paradigm".[86] According to Dubuisson, this is "a mistake that has been made in recent years, especially by the right wing of the political spectrum". Dubuisson cites Mitterrand's programme from 1981, which he said would be considered "the worst extremist of the moment. But in 1981, the political context was different, it was permeated by left-wing themes."[91] According to Dubuisson and political scientist Rémi Lefebvre, it is no more radical than Mitterand's.[92] Similarly, in the words of political scientist Christopher Bickerton, the Front's programme echoes the "old Keynesian strategy of boosting aggregate demand through government spending" of Mitterrand's programme of 1981.[93]
^Gautier, Merlin;Kerbrat, Andy; Keters, Marjorie (10 June 2024)."Face au fascisme l'union fait la force !" [Against fascism, unity is strength!].PEPS: Accueil – Pour Ecologie Populaire Sociale (in French). Retrieved12 June 2024.
^Perdrix, Caroline (11 June 2024)."Législatives : Tematai Le Gayic se prépare à « continuer le combat »" [Legislative: Tematai Le Gayic prepares to "continue the fight"].Radio1 Tahiti (in French). Retrieved13 June 2024.Pour lui, il s'agit de contrer à la fois Emmanuel Macron et l'extrême-droite, et il souligne qu'en Polynésie c'est le Tavini Huiraatira porte la voix du « Front populaire » – l'alliance de principe de plusieurs partis de gauche annoncée hier – la« seule alternative » pour y parvenir selon lui. [For him, it is about countering both Emmanuel Macron and the extreme right, and he emphasizes that in Polynesia it is the Tavini Huiraatira who carries the voice of the "Popular Front" – the alliance of principle of several left-wing parties announced yesterday – the "only alternative" to achieve this according to him.]
^abDavid-Rivière, Félix; Mouquet, Aline (11 June 2024)."Lettre au Front Populaire écologiste et social" [Letter to the Ecological and Social Popular Front].Nouvelle Donne (in French). Retrieved11 June 2024.
^"Législatives 2024 : les candidats déclarés à Mayotte".Franceinfo. 13 June 2024. Retrieved15 June 2024.L'ancien attaché parlementaire Kira Bacar Adacolo se présente avec l'Union pour la Sécurité de Mayotte, un mouvement qu'il a fondé la semaine précédente. Sa candidature sera soutenue par le front populaire, la nouvelle alliance nationale des partis de gauche.
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