French Left-Wing Alliance Launches Election Campaign

Supporters and party leaders gathered for the French left-wing alliance's first rally in Montreuil, near Paris, as campaigning kicked off for France's snap parliamentary election.

Political parties representing the French left-wing reached an agreement on June 12 to form a 'Popular Front' to contest the snap parliamentary election which will be held over the coming month.

Despite the left's efforts to set aside differences to offer a united front against Marine Le Pen's far-right National Rally, divisions appeared over the weekend, as Unbowed France chose not too reinvest candidates deemed too critical of the party's leader, Jean-Luc Melenchon.

"At a time when we need to gather together... it is absolutely useless, to say the least, to pollute the debate with score-settling," said Socialist and New Popular Front leader Olivier Faure.

The move led to an awkward situation in a handful of districts, with some of the party's former elected representatives running against newly appointed candidates.

French President Emmanuel Macron unexpectedly called the election on June 9, after the National Rally trounced his ruling centrist party in European Parliament elections.

Macron's gamble that he could catch other parties off-guard with just a few weeks to prepare for the vote, may backfire, the latest survey by Ifop for LCI suggested.

The poll suggests the eurosceptic, anti-immigration RN will get 33% of votes in the first round on June 30. That is down two points from Ifop's previous poll, but with the share of the conservative Republicans willing to form an electoral alliance with the RN, the total reaches 37%.

The alliance of left-wing parties now stands at 28%, up two points, whereas Macron's camp is a distant third at 18%, down one point. The second round will take place on July 7.