France’s allied left seeks lower retirement age, wealth tax on rich • FRANCE 24 English

France’s allied left seeks lower retirement age, wealth tax on rich • FRANCE 24 English

well if you’re just joining us we are listening in to a press conference there in downtown Paris it’s either the far right or us that statement coming from the green parties Marine telier her group along with France unbal the Socialist and the Communist holding this joint press conference where they unveiled their new alliance called the popular front this of course ahead of the first round of snap elections on June 30th they promised a total break with the policies of President Emanuel maon joining me on the set is our French politics at Mark Pearlman hello to you Mark um they mentioned some 150 measures that would be a radical change in policies what was their focus on well clearly we saw each of uh the parties involved in those negotiations uh essentially laid out two of the measures uh because there’s obviously not time to list uh them all but clearly they want to repeal three key measures implemented by Emanuel macron uh the pension uh reform the immigration reform and the unemployment benefit reform they’re saying this is one of the first decisions we’ll make if we are able to govern after uh the snap elections on July the 7th they also said that they would block the prices of energy and of essential Goods that they would rise the minimum age to ,600 after tax it’s currently 1,400 and also uh we heard uh them speak about some international issues that were a really major bone of contention between them um they uh we heard them speak about their uh clear uh support for uh Ukraine’s defense in the face of the aggression by Vladimir Putin this was said by Manuel mpar the leader of France and B which has sometimes been suspected of being lukewarm in its support for Ukraine and in its condemnation of Vladimir Putin and one of the others who spoke or she’s the member of a very small party called plus headed by Rafael lman Rafael Gman was the head of uh the leftist list in the European elections he scored a good uh he had a good score uh and she said we came together on Ukraine but also on naming what happened on October 7 uh in Israel a terrorist Massacre this was also something that was not easily said by all uh the members uh of the left and uh so they said we made incredible progress in converging the those uh issues and it’s true I mean nobody would have uh imagined that uh the left would get together on a program or at Le let’s say the outlines of a program and also maybe more importantly for electoral math that they have agreed that they would field only one candidate in each of the constituencies there are 577 seats for grab it would have been a death sentence for all those parties if they had gone on their own because this would have meant like four leftist candidates in the two round system with a majority vote they would have been killed quote and quote in in the vast majority of the constituencies Now by Fielding only one candidate they really stand a chance according to the polls because this means that there’ll be clearly a very strong candidate from the national rally and some of um its allies on the right that they’re trying to get and probably someone from the left and this obviously leaves a big question mark What About Emanuel macron’s party the majority they thought they would essentially attract moderates from the right moderates from the left build a central block that would ward off the far left and the far right he had not predicted that the left would get together and essentially uh make it plausible that his majority will become a minority sandwiched between uh clearly strong far far right there’s no reason why they would disappear suddenly and an unexpectedly United left that poses a major challenge to his survival at least his party’s survival yeah and we heard from a number of speakers you mentioned glesman he wasn’t there another not able absence Jean luk milon absolutely his shadow was hovering over this press conference Jean luk milon scored 22% in uh in 2022 at the presidential election and so this is why when there was already uh an alliance between those groups after the election two years ago this was an alliance totally dominated by Jean luk melanon by France andb they were able to get 150 MPS in Parliament uh but clearly the dominant force was for France and Bal this is not the case anymore because as I just mentioned the Socialist on the left came on top during the European uh elections so this means uh that uh France and B had to compromise both on the substance clearly on Ukraine on the issue of Hamas also on the issue of anti-Semitism uh they’ve not been very clear on this issue we’ve heard other speakers say we now have a clear uh mind on on this uh very sensitive uh topic so they’ve had to make compromises on the substance but also on the number of seats uh that they’re likely to get because they’ll Feld less candidates than last time around but obviously Jean luk milon is still around the far right and the majority of Emanuel macron are already attacking this Alliance I saying don’t believe what you’re hearing from them uh they’re just uh uh hiding their differences and hiding their true colors because their true colors is Jean luk milon uh who is known for his aggressive style of politics a polarizing figure and so they’re saying if you elect them you’ll get jean luk M as prime minister he was asked just a couple of days ago whether he would be a prime minister he said I feel I’m able to do this but it’s not for me to decide there is an alliance so obviously he’s taking a back seat why because I just explained to you that if they don’t go united uh this won’t work you mentioned RAF Gman he has this morning in a radio interview land his support to this Alliance but he’s also added I’m not going to make any other compromises and I can tell you this if we uh win on July 7th Jean luk meon will not be the prime minister of our alliance this might be wishful thinking this might be uh leveraging and so on will will’ll get to know but obviously uh they’ve decided that this is their best chance maybe to pull an upset and to win because if uh the left would win this election given uh where they are in the polls and where theyve been in recent elections this would be nothing short of a miracle but clearly the fear of the far right is their best weapon they’re going to use it Emanuel Macon was hoping to use it but he if he’s not the most efficient V vle to do so the voters might decide well we might try a luck we might not like everything they say but we’re hoping that there’ll be more moderate uh than what appears to be the case if you look at their respective programs

France’s leftwing parties want to lower the retirement age, link salaries to inflation and introduce a wealth tax for the rich, leaders of a newly agreed alliance that spans from the hard left to the Socialists and Greens said on Friday. France 24’s Marc Perelman takes a closer look at their newly unveiled manifesto.
#France #left #elections

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