France's left-wing parties on the verge of historic alliance
France's left-wing parties are on the verge of joining forces ahead of the upcoming legislative elections in an effort to counter newly re-elected President Emmanuel Macron.
In a joint statement on Wednesday, the far-left party La France Insoumise (LFI) and the centre-left Socialist Party (PS) said they had come to an agreement ahead of the June elections.
"We want to elect MPs in a majority of constituencies, to prevent Emmanuel Macron from continuing his unjust and brutal policy...and defeat the far right," the two parties said.
If passed by the Socialist Party's internal committee, it would mark a historic left-wing coalition.
LFI had already come to an agreement this week with the Green Party and the Communist Party to form a new alliance in France's lower house of parliament, the National Assembly.
The far-left party's candidate, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, came third in the first round of the presidential elections on April 10, just shy of far-right candidate Marine Le Pen who faced incumbent Macron in the second round.
Macron was re-elected with 58% of the vote, but many left-wing voters told Euronews they were disappointed with the president's policies and faced a difficult choice between voting or abstaining in the second round.
The other left-wing parties received under 5% of the vote, with the formerly dominant Socialist Party obtaining a historic low of under 2% of the vote.
LFI and the Socialists said in their agreement on Wednesday that they "share common programmatic goals that will form the basis of a shared government programme of several hundred proposals."
If the left-wing parties receive a majority in parliament, they would support Mélenchon as being designated prime minister, the agreement also states.
But
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