New Ecological and Social People’s Union as a Lifeline for the French Left

Abstract

The article is devoted to the unification of the leading left parties of France: Socialist (SP), Communist (FCP), Europe Ecology – The Greens (EEG), France Unbowed (FU) – on the eve of the parliamentary elections on June 12 and 19, 2022, into a single alliance, called New Ecological and Social People’s Union (NESPU). It is analyzed to what extent the efforts made by the leaders of the leading left political forces corresponded to the aspirations of the left electorate. Particular attention is paid to the theoretical provisions of the program adopted by the NESPU, it was educed to what extent the strategy adopted by the Union corresponded to the individual programmes of the parties and what the coalition participants failed to agree on. The socio-cultural section of the NESPU electorate is considered separately. The results of the parliamentary elections for the NESPU are analyzed, the speeches of the deputies of the parties belonging to the Union in parliament on the most important issues of the financial policy of the government of E. Macron for 2023 are shown, and the fault lines between the participants of the NESPU are marked. Based on the results of the study, it was concluded that the newly created coalition of leftist political parties as a whole, despite the considerable differences in political courses, still manages to maintain unity, following the chosen strategy of free voting.

Keywords

• left-wing political parties
• new ecological and social people’s union (nespu)
• parliamentary elections
• electorate
• programme documents
• political strategy