Hard-left candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon has come under fire for refusing to tell his supporters who to back in France’s 7 May presidential run-off after failing to make it to the second round himself. Should he endorse former economy minister Emmanuel Macron to block far-right leader Marine Le Pen? For many of his supporters, that’s an impossible choice.
Le Pen on Tuesday appealed to Mélenchon’s voters to back her, accusing Macron of planning a war on their social conditions.
Many Mélenchon voters do not like either option for president: Emmanuel Macron or Marine Le Pen.
And they resent accusations of betrayal from politicians from mainstream parties who are urging them to support Macron to bar Le Pen’s route to the Elysée Palace.
“We feel like we are being totally blackmailed into a choice between two persons who represent everything that we have fought against for most of us all our life,” fervent Mélenchon supporter Alice Forge told RFI by phone on Wednesday.
“We are called fascists because we don’t want to choose between the oligarchy and the National Front but it was our party [La France Insoumise (Defiant France)] which is the one who has been fighting these ideas all year round, not just every five years.”