Far-left Jean-Luc Mélenchon took direct aim at far-right contender Marine Le Pen and her Nationally Rally party – previously known as the National Front – for having been absent since her party lost the French presidential election. Presidential hopeful Mélenchon lost the first round of the election by one single percentage point to Ms Le Pen. He is now campaigning to become Prime Minister ahead of France’s parliamentary election. In a campaign speech to his left-wing coalition, Mr Mélenchon hit out at Ms Le Pen: “So there is one vote that is absolutely useless. It’s the National Front.”
Under the applause, Mr Mélenchon continued: “And I’ll tell you why.
“I’ll tell you why it’s absolutely useless.
“As the MP was telling you – there are several MPs here, they (Le Pen’s MPs) don’t come. They don’t do the job.”
According to Marine Le Pen’s spokesperson, the far-right leader has been recovering from the French presidential election – hence her absence from the campaign field ahead of the French parliamentary elections.
“Pension reform. Not a word from Madame Le Pen”, Mr Mélenchon added.
“So she says: yes, but that’s because I don’t have a group. Liar!
“Anyone can speak, any MP can speak when they want to table an amendment and defend it.
“That’s not true, you’re useless… except for helping the other guy (Emmanuel Macron).”
The three driving forces of the campaign are Macron’s coalition Revival, Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s left-wing Union and Marine Le Pen’s National Rally. While Jean-Luc Mélenchon has been throwing his whole weight behind his campaign to form a “historical”, four-party left-wing coalition, Marine Le Pen has refused to form an alliance with Eric Zemmour’s Reconquest party.
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Jean-Luc Mélenchon, however, has been clear in his intention of becoming Prime Minister. If his coalition wins a majority of seats in France’s lower court, Macron could be forced to elect Mr Mélenchon as Prime Minister.
“There’s no point in voting for them because they won’t do anything”, Mélenchon hit out at Marine Le Pen’s party.