Twelve years ago I was sat in a small room in parliament meeting Jean-Luc Melenchon – then the leader of the French Party of the Left (Parti de Gauche), and now the leader of the largest political bloc in the French parliament.
In 2012, he was a rising figure in European left-wing politics, despite only coming fourth in the first round of the French presidential election that year. But it wasn’t just the result itself, which was creditable – he had just received four million votes – but the manner of it too. He was bold and articulate in making the case for socialism, and determined to take on the far right, led by Marine Le Pen (who had finished third in that race).
In that room with me, listening attentively to how a 61-year-old had mobilised a coalition of young people, workers and environmentalists was fellow 61-year-old John McDonnell, and a slightly older Jeremy Corbyn.
The thing that stuck with me that Melenchon said that day was this: “Every day I wake up and think ‘what would I do in office’… We have to be well-organised, disciplined, and with a concrete programme.”
Melenchon was determined, focused on power and had a clear strategy. It was in contrast to the British left at the time, which was on the margins of the opposition Labour Party, while the Tory-led coalition government imposed austerity. But inspiration is infectious and circumstances create opportunity. Across Europe, governments were implementing austerity – and left-wing forces were emerging to challenge, often where traditional social democratic parties sat inert.
Within three years things changed dramatically in the UK – Jeremy Corbyn was leader of the opposition, and John McDonnell shadow chancellor. In 2017 they denied the Tories a majority and were only a few thousand votes away from being the only party that could have formed a government.
Last night, Melenchon’s hastily and doggedly convened Nouveau Front Populaire (New Popular Front – an alliance of left parties and Greens) went one better and emerged as the largest grouping in French parliamentary elections, defeating a growing far-right threat.
It won the argument for left-wing policies and built a supporter base. In 2012, Melenchon told his select British audience: “I am now convinced you have to speak to the people. You have to re-educate people, explain what left-wing ideas are… You need to explain. This is popular education.”
Melenchon doesn’t speak in slogans and soundbites – he explains. His perorations weave together French history, political theory, explain left-wing ideas and the current crises facing capitalism. He speaks of human desires and needs. And he is not afraid to challenge ideas that offend those principles – whether that’s an acceptance of neoliberal economics as the norm, or the mainstreaming of far-right anti-migrant rhetoric.
His bombastic approach is reflected in the name of his party, La France Insoumise (France Unbowed). Melenchon is unbowed, pugnacious and also divisive, even on the left. But he now may be the French prime minister by the end of the week.
This is the key difference between Melenchon and the centrists on both sides of the Channel. He wants to change minds, win arguments – not concede ground and compromise, pander to prejudice and focus group his way to power. Last night he was vindicated.
It wasn’t the failed centrism of Emmanuel Macron that defeated the far right, but a coalition of left-wing forces (social democrats, Greens, socialists and communists), assembled messily, hastily and doggedly by Melenchon, that dashed the hopes of the rebranded Front National, when polls and pundits alike had predicted a breakthrough for the party of Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella.
The forces dividing politics in France are similar to those here in the UK: neoliberal economics prioritising low taxes, especially for business, combined with the strains on public services from an ageing population; international turmoil in Gaza and Ukraine, and from climate change; and rising migration.
The far right offers no solutions, only scapegoats. Centrists have failed to tackle the challenges of our modern world creating disillusionment and frustration. The left must offer real policy solutions and help people to understand the world we live in and the necessary changes to thrive.
Here in the UK, a populist right has emerged in Nigel Farage’s Reform UK, busy building links with similar movements across the world: Trump’s Republicans in the US, Orban in Hungary, the AfD in Germany and the National Rally in France. The Conservatives are at a crossroads – and may too leap in that direction.
Starmer’s Labour risks falling into the same void as Macron in France and Olaf Scholz in Germany, offering technocratic tweaks instead of the seismic policy shifts necessary to meet the huge challenges facing us. If they fail to deliver, the threat is obvious.
The left has solutions and must boldly put them forward, but the British left is even more divided than the French. An urgent process of co-ordination is needed – informal at first – between the Labour left, the Greens, independent lefts and progressive nationalists. The surge in the Green vote and the victories of independent lefts should demonstrate that an appetite for bolder, socially just politics remains – left-wing ideas and policies continue to poll well too.
But the point that Melenchon grasped in France is that ideas are nothing without organisation. And if those ideas don’t get a hearing, then the lure of the blame game or minor fixes will convince people otherwise. The message from France to the British left – in all its diversity – is clear: organise and co-ordinate.
Andrew Fisher is a former executive director of policy for the Labour Party