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'French Bernie' Jean-Luc Mélenchon Unites The Left For Legislative Elections In France And Spurs Memes On Twitter

May 6th, 2022 - 12:24 PM EDT by Aidan Walker

(Twitter / @NUPES_2022, @avecvous)

French politician Jean-Luc Mélenchon and his party La France Insoumise (LFI) have reached an agreement with the other parties for the French left to unite as one bloc for the upcoming French legislative elections. As a result, memers of the French left rejoiced online in droves.


Mélenchon calls the upcoming elections a “third round” of the presidential election, which concluded two weeks ago with the election of Emmanuel Macron. In the first round of that election, Mélenchon came very close to beating Marine Le Pen and advancing to the second round.

If the new party called Nouvelle Union Populaire Écologiste et Social (NUPES) wins enough seats, Mélenchon would become Prime Minister, which in France is an extremely powerful role, essentially directing all domestic policy.

Many memers focused on the character of Mélenchon, who has a reputation of being somewhat eccentric and perhaps arrogant. Many have compared the French politician to Bernie Sanders in the United States, dubbing him "French Bernie."

Mélenchon left the Socialist party, then one of two major French political parties, 14 years ago to start his own party. Now, his own party has outperformed the socialists by a considerable margin, and recent polling seems good for NUPES.

Mélenchon also came under criticism, with some leveling accusations of anti-Semitism and Euroskepticism against him. His short temper has been the subject of memes and jokes for years, as of some of his more questionable takes about leftist authoritarians and Russia. Many old-guard members of the Socialist Party, particularly those affiliated with former President François Hollande, also refused to join the new coalition due to objections about Mélenchon.

The highly French meme below labels the objections of politicians like Hollande and Cazeneuve as fine wine, and then shows “everybody betrayed by the Hollande administration” heartily smelling the fragrance of that wine. The other tweet below describes remarks Mélenchon has made about journalists, the law, and the war in Ukraine, concluding he has autocratic tendencies.

French political memery has also been stirred by another development, perhaps tied to the emergence of a credible threat to President Macron’s power from the left. Macron’s party has changed its name from La République En Marche! (The Republic On The Move!) to “Renaissance,” and held a press conference about it.

Many joked that despite the party’s attempt to brand “Renaissance” as a rebirth, the stage at the press conference was stacked with old men. This is the third name for the party: the first was just “En Marche!” (Macron’s initials), and LREM was the second.

The French legislative elections will be held from June 12th to the 19th, and commentators from all sides expect a vigorous campaign.

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