Melenchon is an admirer of Latin American revolutionary leaders, and advocates price controls
The towering firebrand of France’s hard-left, Melenchon’s France Unbowed (LFI) party won the most seats of the leftist alliance that scored a shock victory over the far right in Sunday’s snap legislative election.
His party’s top position gives him a credible claim to be France’s next prime minister. But his hopes of dragging France sharply leftward appear dead after mainstream party chiefs quickly ruled out forming a coalition with a tax-and-spend, pro-Gaza figure who many in France view as an antisemitic radical.
The New Popular Front (NFP) leftist alliance could seek to cobble together an unwieldy coalition without him, or try to form a minority government by reaching individual deals on legislation with rivals, but neither would be easy.
