{"id":11973,"date":"2026-05-06T02:07:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T02:07:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/11973\/"},"modified":"2026-05-06T02:07:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T02:07:08","slug":"melenchon-threatens-to-smother-moderate-rivals-with-early-french-presidential-bid-politico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/11973\/","title":{"rendered":"M\u00e9lenchon threatens to smother moderate rivals with early French presidential bid \u2013 POLITICO"},"content":{"rendered":"

But M\u00e9lenchon has suffered a \u201cnoticeable decline\u201d in support among moderates, Lestrohan said. \u201cThe question is whether he can win them back despite his deteriorated image,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

M\u00e9lenchon was criticized for campaigning the 2024 European election almost entirely on a platform devoted to the Palestinian cause, and more recently he faced widespread furor<\/a> over his continued affiliation and defense of an antifascist organization whose members were accused of killing of an activist with ties to far-right groups. <\/p>\n

\"\"French lawyer, politician and media personality Raquel Garrido participates in a meeting in Liffr\u00e9, France on April 25, 2026. | Lou Benoist\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

The latest poll<\/a> on the 2027 presidential election has M\u00e9lenchon netting between 12 and 13 percent of the vote \u2014 down from the nearly 22 percent he scored in the last election, but still within striking distance of advancing in such a crowded field.<\/p>\n

To winnow down the number of left-wing candidates, the Greens and some members of the center-left Socialist Party want to hold a left-wing primary sans M\u00e9lenchon. But prominent figures like former President Fran\u00e7ois Hollande and MEP Rapha\u00ebl Glucksmann \u2014 both expected to launch presidential bids \u2014 are opposed to such a contest.<\/p>\n

The dispute has been raging for months behind closed doors. Raquel Garrido, a former France Unbowed MP who has since broken with M\u00e9lenchon and advocates for a left-wing primary, told POLITICO the \u201cchaos\u201d among the rest of the French left proves M\u00e9lenchon right.<\/p>\n

M\u00e9lenchon is now positioning himself for a showdown with the far right, and even trying to turn his image as a divider to his advantage. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen it comes to the National Rally, yes, I will be divisive,\u201d he said Sunday in an interview<\/a> with online outlet Brut. \u201cBut I will also be able to bring people together. The two can certainly go hand in hand.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"But M\u00e9lenchon has suffered a \u201cnoticeable decline\u201d in support among moderates, Lestrohan said. \u201cThe question is whether he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11974,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[375,379,5,1649,282,390],"class_list":{"0":"post-11973","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-france","8":"tag-elections","9":"tag-elections-in-europe","10":"tag-france","11":"tag-french-election-2027","12":"tag-french-politics","13":"tag-jean-luc-melenchon"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11973","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11973"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11973\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11974"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}