Bill Mitchell — French presidential election – some hope for a future progressive, anti-EU Left

I guess Macron will win on April 10.

But what interested me the most was that Jean-Luc Mélenchon captured the votes of the younger French voters and the youngest cohort – the 18-24 year olds – rejected Le Pen and Zemmour.

If that trend continues, and as time passes with those age cohorts getting older, there might be a future for a progressive, anti-EU Left in France.

Neoliberalism still prevails, meaning that the haute bourgeoisie continue to rule. So the question will be which faction of the elite will prevail, not what will benefit the people. In other words, more of the same until there is a meaningful left. But the last time the so-called left was in power under Francois Hollande, it failed when Hollande caved to neoliberalism.

Bill Mitchell – billy blog
French presidential election – some hope for a future progressive, anti-EU Left
Bill Mitchell | Professor in Economics and Director of the Centre of Full Employment and Equity (CofFEE), at University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia

See also

The plague of the left politically, not only in France, is division and divisiveness, standing on principle as it were. While the center and right usually rally around a candidate that can win, the left seeks to preserve its "purity," with much disagreement over what that means. So even if leftist sentiment is rising among the young, the challenge to build an effective political program and party remains. The good news presently is that the old left is on the way out, clearing the field for a change of policy, strategy and tactics on the left.

TRTWorld
Why is the French left in tatters? (22 Mar 2022)
Murat Sofuoglu