Left Party (France)

The Left Party (French: Parti de gauche, PG) is a left-wing democratic-socialist political party in France,[2] founded in 2009 by Jean-Luc Mélenchon and Marc Dolez after their departure from the Socialist Party (PS). The PG claims to bring together personalities and groups from different political traditions; it claims a socialist, ecologist and republican orientation.

Left Party
Parti de gauche
AbbreviationPG
CoordinatorsÉric Coquerel
Danielle Simonnet
FoundersJean-Luc Mélenchon
Marc Dolez
Founded1 February 2009 (2009-02-01)
Split fromSocialist Party
Headquarters20–22 Rue Doudeauville, 75018 Paris
NewspaperL'Insoumission Hebdo
Membership (2018)Decrease 6,000[1]
Ideology
Political positionLeft-wing[8][9][10]
National affiliationNew Ecologic and Social People's Union
European Parliament groupEuropean United Left-Nordic Green Left
Colours  Red
  Green
National Assembly
25 / 577
Senate
0 / 348
European Parliament
2 / 74
Regional Councils
7 / 1,880
Party flag
Website
www.lepartidegauche.fr

Politically located between the Socialist Party and the French Communist Party, the Left Party intends to federate all the sensitivities of the anti-liberal left—which they also call "the other left"—within the same alliance. In 2008, the PG joined forces with the Communist Party of the United Left and six other left-wing and far-left organizations in the coalition of the Left Front, of which Jean-Luc Mélenchon was the candidate for the presidential election.

The PG was co-chaired from 2010 by Jean-Luc Mélenchon and Martine Billard. In 2016, the Left Party had 8,000 members. At the end of 2014, Jean-Luc Mélenchon and Martine Billard resigned, and the party leadership was then collectively ensured by the national secretariat. The weekly newspaper, L'Intérêt général (formerly À gauche) is sent to all members but also to simple subscribers. It is printed at more than 15,000 copies a week.

In 2016, in view of the presidential and legislative elections of the following year, Jean-Luc Mélenchon formed a new movement, La France Insoumise, that the Left Party helped to animate.

History
People march waving flags during a demonstration against expulsions of foreign students on 5 November 2013 in Toulouse.

It was founded in November 2008 by former Socialist senator Jean-Luc Mélenchon, deputy Marc Dolez, and other dissidents of the party together with the MARS movement (Mouvement pour une Alternative Républicaine et Sociale, "Movement for a Republican and Social Alternative").

They had left the PS five days earlier, in protest of the result of the Reims Congress vote on motions, where the leftist motion they supported won only 19%.

They were joined after by other members from the left of the Socialist Party, by people who hadn't been members of a political party before, and by dissidents from the Green Party following the deputy Martine Billard.

In 2010 the PG was accepted into the Party of European Left.

In November 2013, the PG joined the international Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel.[11]

Co-presidents and co-founders Mélenchon and Billard stepped down from office in 2014.[12] Since its 2015 congress, the party is led by its coordinators and spokespersons Éric Coquerel and Danielle Simonnet.[13]

On 2 July 2018 the party withdrew from the Party of European Left, disagreeing with the presence of the Greek left-wing party Syriza in the alliance.

The party advocates ecosocialism as an alternative to capitalism, stating that

Ecosocialism makes it possible to contribute in an exemplary way to the fight against the looming ecological catastrophe, through a major transformation planned over time in modes of production and consumption. This ecological planning is also the way to restore control of time to everyone and to include humanity and nature in a long time frame, necessary for the survival of our ecosystem. Our ecosocialism aims for human emancipation and involves breaking with the domination of the capitalist logic of maximum and endless accumulation. Thus, it fully introduces the ecological dimension and the fight against productivism into the history of socialism. Ecosocialism is thus “a socialism freed from productivist logic and a fiercely anti-capitalist ecology” (First Manifesto – 18 theses for ecosocialism). [14]

Elected officials

Around 90 locally-elected officials (municipal, regional and general councillors), including two members of the Council of Paris, initially joined the party. This number has dropped since then.

The PG has yet to run independently in an election, so support base is difficult to quantify.

National Assembly
National Assembly
Election Leader Votes (first round) Seats Result Notes
No. % No. ±
2012 Jean-Luc Mélenchon 1,793,192 6.91 Decrease 8 Opposition

European Parliament
European Parliament
Election year Number of votes  % of overall vote # of seats won
2009 1,115,021 6.47%[15] 1[16]
2014 1,252,730 6.61% 1[17]

References
  1. Abel Mestre (29 June 2018). "Au Parti de gauche, un congrès pour continuer d'exister". Le Monde. Retrieved 30 June 2018.
  2. Nordsieck, Wolfram (2012). "France". Parties and Elections in Europe. Archived from the original on 20 March 2017.
  3. Zaretsky, Robert (5 September 2013). "Adrift in a Zéro-Polaire World". Foreign Policy. Retrieved 2022-06-07.
  4. "The French Far Right Won Big This Weekend". www.vice.com. April 2014. Retrieved 2022-06-07.
  5. Denis Tugdual (5 April 2013). "Le Pen-Mélenchon: la mode est au langage populiste". L'Express (in French).
  6. Jean-Laurent Cassely (15 April 2013). "Le populisme "vintage" de Jean-Luc Mélenchon, trop élaboré pour être efficace". Slate (in French).
  7. Adler, David (January 10, 2019). "Meet Europe's Left Nationalists". Archived from the original on January 10, 2019. Retrieved May 23, 2019 – via www.thenation.com. {{cite magazine}}: Cite magazine requires |magazine= (help)
  8. "France promises €5 million to fight period poverty". The Local France. 16 December 2020. Retrieved 14 February 2022. Paris city councillor and member of the French left-wing Parti de Gauche (PG) Danielle Simonnet shows a tampon during a meeting to mark International Women's Day.
  9. "Nicolas Sarkozy has left France's presidential race with a warning about lurching to 'extremes'". The Independent. 2016-11-21. Retrieved 2022-06-07.
  10. "Paris beach party under fire for 'indecent' Tel Aviv theme". The Week UK. 10 August 2015. Retrieved 2022-06-07.
  11. "Le Parti de Gauche s'engage dans les campagnes boycott, désinvestissement, sanctions, à l'égard d'Israël". Le Parti de Gauche. Archived from the original on 2013-11-21.
  12. "French far-left leader steps down, but not leaving politics". Radio France Internationale. 22 August 2014. Archived from the original on 5 September 2014. Retrieved 18 January 2016.
  13. "Le Secrétariat exécutif national". Le Parti de Gauche. Archived from the original on 2016-06-04.
  14. PROGRAMME DU PARTI DE GAUCHE Convention programmatique du 27 et 28 mars 2016, P.10
  15. Results of the Left Front which includes the larger French Communist Party
  16. Of the 5 Left Front MEP, 1 is a member of the PG
  17. Of the 4 Left Front MEP, 1 is a member of the PG
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