What Happened to France’s Left-Wing?

It LEFT the political arena

French left: someone named François should be president

A little notice: Jospin was prime minister under Chirac between 1997 and 2002, and he was de facto Leader of France because, at the time, the socialists had the majority in the chamber of deputies. We can add that time as when socialists were also in power.

French elections are very candidate centric. People vote for the face more than for the party. This means that if your candidate is not popular or is a known crook, they get shit on. Which is what happened with Anne hidalgo and benoit hamon

Président Hollande buried it with himself.

One could also ask what happened to conservatism in France. Conservatives dominated French politics from de Gaulle to Sarkozy. They ended up with 7% of the vote, squeezed between Macron's neoliberals and Le Pen's far right.

I think you should’ve mentioned how the fifth republic was created partly in response to the growth of the communist party

You could say that France is divided between the left/socialists, the center/neoliberals and the far right/conservatives. People think macron’s government is making right wing/conservative decisions, but it’s more of a neo-liberal economic policy than a conservative one. Still can be considered “right”.

One of the elements that has done the most harm to the left in France is the evolution of media supports. Left-wing ideas were traditionally supported by 2 factors in France: the trade union organizations of the working world and the public expression of intellectuals. These two factors have disappeared: economic restructuring has completely destructured the working world and social networks have made the expression of intellectuals disappear in favor of "punchline" specialists. Today, there is a real ideological vacuum in France, the positioning of voters is essentially motivated by circumstantial elements (immigration, insecurity, personal economic situation, community identity, personal sensitivity to environmental issues, etc.) which play into the hands demagogic political speeches. And the French left has always had trouble with demagoguery...

I think that the destruction of the French left is ironically a consequence of their success, meaning that after 1945 the French left had managed to get a country that was strictly secular, with a big state-owned companies and a lot of labour rights with strong trade unions. So what else was to be leftist about? In response, most people voted right wing parties. In a sort of unintended balancing

A big aspect to understand the NUPES problematic - among other in French politics - is how balance of power may change radically depending on which election you're talking about. The "big three" situation presented in the video is only accurate when you talk about national elections - both presidential and parliamentary. In European elections, for instance, Melenchon's party really sucks, to the point of being overshadowed among the Left by the Socialists and the Green (it's another subject of bickering in the NUPES btw). And it's radically different at local scale : both the RN, the Macronist or the Melenchonist have very weak local and regional implantations. This is the scale where both the socialist and - especially - the conservative Republican party retain large parts of their former dominance, while the Green recently made a spectacular breakthrough.

We have thing common saying in France: " French people have their hearts to the left and their minds to the right".

good attempt to try to grasp a very confusing situation. About future ... situation is a bit complex so I won't blame you for your lack of predictions !

You forgot to mention that the breakthrough of Emmanuel Macron in 2017 is probably responsible of the downfall of PS. the majority of French people that used to vote for moderate Parties were searching a new leader after being disappointed with hollande. Macron was young, seems to be brilliant and charismatic. Major part of Socialist electors became Macron electors. You can add that Macron won thanks to the Fillon's scandal just weeks before elections.

The I'm at section is lit!

As a French citizen leaning on the progressive side of things, I cannot overstate how let down I have been feeling about the Left in France (especially about Ukraine), but I do not wish to vote for a center candidate interested in destroying more state institution or the neo liberal of the Right. In other words; I don't know who to vote for and whoever I choose it will be half a vote.

French leftist, I’d like to add a few things : - Holland’s presidency is considered a shameful one for more or less all leftist voters. He had Macron as his minister of economy. And that’s the reason the center-left is dead, cus everybody understood it’s more center than left. - The médias have been saying that Mélenchon is finished since more than 10 years, and yet his presidential score only grows. - Mélenchon is bad at the EU elections, cus there is much less participation to the elections, especially his voters : the youngs and poors. When the poors don’t vote the socialists are the strongest left party, makes one think … - the same thing happened 5 years ago, Mélenchon did 19.5% at the presidential elections, and at the EU the greens did a much better score than Mélenchon, yet at the next presidentials, Mélenchon was still at 22% and the greens at 4.5% - The NUPES is dead because the small parties only used it to get congressmen. Without the alliance, the communists, socialists and greens would have 0 congressmen and would be more or less dead parties.

Please, make a video about Belgium. They are having a legislative election this year, and the polls look... interesting, to say the least

Part of the reason is probably that the French Left doesn't have a solution for the migration problem in Europe. In Denmark the Social Dems shifted their immigration policy more to the right and it had without a doubt benefited them in the past elections.

I'm French and I can tell you one thing. The French are more to the left on social issues but on societal (family ect....) and sovereign issues (immigration, security, justice) the French are conservative and have taken a very right turn for years. It's not a secret. The left has lost some of its voters on societal and sovereign issues because it is too lax and flirts with Islamism. And this is why the left is more and more in the minority. She abandoned the farmers, the workers (who formerly voted left)... The vast majority of the French can no longer stand this. They are very attached to their culture, their traditions, their heritage (churches, cathedrals), their country. This is why the RN is becoming more and more successful. Social program on the left but very right on immigration, justice, security, Islamism. It speaks to the French. And I would add that Marine le Pen and her party are closer to Russia than to Ukraine than is Mélenchon's left.....