Overview
- Mélenchon presented his 1,000‑plus‑point manifesto to about 20,000 supporters at Le Bourget on Saturday, formally turning the programme into the centrepiece of his 2027 campaign.
- The platform calls for lowering the retirement age to 60, a €1,700 minimum wage, partial renationalisation, withdrawal from NATO’s integrated command, and unconventional debt measures to free public spending.
- Polls put Mélenchon around 17.5–18 percent, making him the strongest candidate on the left and a possible runner‑up, but head‑to‑head surveys show Marine Le Pen would beat him decisively in a runoff.
- His hardline pro‑Palestine rhetoric has sharpened tensions: critics cite repeated refusals to label Hamas as simply a terrorist group and one single‑source report that he suggested naval escorts for flotillas, a claim not broadly corroborated.
- Economists and the prime minister have warned the manifesto’s debt and spending ideas could unsettle investors, former allies accuse LFI of authoritarian internal control, and student protests since September have helped mobilise his base.