Looking ahead to the presidential elections in France in 2027, the candidate of La Francia Insumisa, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, seeks to give a show of force this Saturday, November 7 at an event on the outskirts of Paris, in which he will defend the updated electoral program of his hard-left party, launched on Friday. The plan contains 1,069 measures, 238 of them new, with the focus on "ecological planning", a more horizontal economy and measures to open up immigration.

First modification: 11/07/2026 - 15:47

Affirmed in the polls as the most likely rival of the far-right Marine Le Pen in an eventual presidential second round in the 2027 presidential elections in France, the leftist Jean-Luc Mélenchon seeks to take advantage of the presentation of the electoral program of La Francia Insumisa (LFI) to show the muscle of his candidacy for the Elysée.

With an estimate of up to 20,000 attendees, Mélenchon is leading a campaign event this Saturday, November 7, at the Le Bourget exhibition center, in the department of Seine-Saint-Denis, on the outskirts of Paris.

It is a symbolic place for the French left: in January 2012, the socialist François Holland held a famous rally there in which he declared the "world of finance" as his "true adversary"; and, more important for Mélenchon – who rejects the figure of Holland – is that in that place it was François Mitterrand's last act before the first electoral round during his campaign for re-election in 1988.

According to Manuel Bompard, coordinator of LFI and director of the campaign of the hard-left candidate, to the AFP agency, the objectives of the meeting in Le Bourget will be "to demonstrate the strength and momentum of our campaign, to make our team known and to present our program."

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This is an updated version of "The Common Future", Mélenchon's presidential programme, made up of 1,069 measures, 238 of them new. On Friday it was launched in bookstores in the country, at a price of 4.90 euros.

This kind of relaunch of Mélenchon was completed with the presentation of a new campaign poster, which evokes the aesthetics and message of the socialist François Mitterrand in 1981, when he evoked "the silent force."

The current leftist presidential candidate posed in front of a rural landscape in the town of Gergovie in Auvergne, a gesture with which he intends to broaden the reach of his movement, known for having its base in large cities and their suburbs.

The slogan refers to the well-known French motto, although with a symbolic modification: after "freedom" and "equality", LFI chose to change "fraternity" to "solidarity". "Fraternity is an individual behavior, solidarity is a political project," Bompard explained.

Behind everything, Mélenchon's mission is to convey an image of unity of the left, divided between his movement and the social democrats who reject some of his visions that they consider "radical." In this task, LFI has received the support this week of the majority of the communist and overseas group in the National Assembly and hopes to soon benefit from the support of the small Génération.s party.

Read also: How is the left adjusting for the elections in France with Glucksmann's challenge to Mélenchon?

A program focused on "ecological planning"

The most updated version of the program with which Mélenchon is preparing his fourth presidential candidacy (after those of 2012, 2017 and 2022) focuses especially on "ecological planning", as Hadrien Clouet, LFI deputy and co-responsible for the text together with Clémence Guetté, explained to AFP.

In the introduction to 'The Future in Common', the leftist candidate for the Elysée defends that his plan is about "perpetuating human life" in the face of a "capitalism that is not leading directly against a wall."

Among the reforms it proposes is the creation of "ecoregions", an administrative reorganization of France around the country's "ecological characteristics", such as hydrographic basins, mountains or coasts.

In line with the movement's collectivist vision, LFI aims to implement an "ecological planning council" that will oversee the "relocation of essential productions."

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He also proposes the enshrinement in the Constitution of the "green rule", according to which "we cannot extract more from nature than it is capable of regenerating"; and the phasing out of nuclear energy, which remains on the agenda.

On the other hand, the program maintains the classic LFI proposals: raising the minimum wage to 1,700 euros net, "100% social security" and abolishing the pension reform, returning to 62 as the retirement age, before "reestablishing the right to retire at age 60 with the full rate corresponding to 40 years of contributions."

In the social sphere, an eventual LFI government would seek to end "the privatization and destruction of common and public spaces" and create a category of "single-parent family", similar to that of "large families", so that its members can benefit from discounts on transportation.

At the international level, the "insubordinates" ratify their commitment to "non-alignment", insist on a withdrawal from NATO and aspire to remove France from what they describe as "Western isolation."

It also refers specifically to the Middle East, urging "enforcement of the arrest warrant against Israeli Prime Minister" Benjamin Netanyahu; and, beyond upholding LFI's commitment to the two-state solution in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, it advocates "taking into account other possibilities to guarantee the internationally recognized individual and collective rights of Palestinians", such as a binational state, an amendment proposed by MEP of Palestinian origin Rima Hassan.

Faced with a common criticism of the hard left, the supposed unviability of the proposed measures, Guetté indicated that the movement has been relying for several months on a network of 200 senior public officials called 'the Phrygians', whose function is to "perfect the implementation of the program."

To make it clearer, at this Saturday's event in Le Bourget, the LFI organization anticipated that a short film will be broadcast, "halfway between fiction and reality, with passages between stage and screen, to show how 'The Future in Common' will change people's lives," Mélenchon's entourage detailed to AFP.

Read alsoFrance: the leftist Jean-Luc Mélenchon makes his candidacy for the 2027 presidential elections official

Le Pen and Mélenchon cross paths over the LFI program

Anticipating a discussion that could focus the Elysée race, as the polls indicate, the far-right candidate Marine Le Pen – who leads the voting intention polls – described several of the proposals in the LFI program as "dangerous", especially on immigration, something predictable given the anti-immigration rhetoric of her party, the National Rally (RN, for its acronym in English).

In the enumeration of her extensive message in

In addition, the far-right candidate criticized that LFI proposes the closure of detention centers for foreigners pending expulsion, the dismantling of police anti-crime brigades, the disarmament of municipal police forces or the progressive reduction of nuclear energy.

For Le Pen – who can run for the presidency thanks to a reduction in her sentence for embezzlement of European funds –, Mélenchon's project represents the "dismantling of France" and an alleged continuation, to the last consequences, of the "deconstruction" policy, in her opinion initiated by Emmanuel Macron since he came to power in 2017.

"It is a project that disarms, that renounces, that disconnects and that divides," wrote Le Pen, after warning that the LFI guidelines threaten, in her opinion, the national cohesion, security and prosperity of France.

Mélenchon did not delay in responding to Le Pen, questioning that she "attacks mainly on immigration and the police", without addressing economic and social proposals.

"She adores the police. She points everything at immigration," wrote the leftist candidate, who criticized that a "self-proclaimed 'patriot'" raises objections to land rights, "a French tradition since the 16th century."

Read alsoFirst debate of the 2027 French presidential elections: the main proposals of the candidates

Along these lines, he criticized Le Pen for not referring to his "rejection" of the 'rebellious' proposals to restore retirement at age 60, raise the minimum wage or freeze the prices of certain products.

With AFP and EFE

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