Far-left and far-right leaders fight for seat
Source: Agencies |
May 13, 2012, Sunday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
THE leaders of France's far-left and far-right parties will run for the same seat in parliamentary elections next month, pitting charismatic former presidential candidates who tapped into dissatisfaction with mainstream leaders against each other.
The Left Front's Jean-Luc Melenchon announced yesterday that he would run for Parliament in the same northern district where Marine Le Pen, leader of the National Front, had already announced her candidacy.
Both politicians electrified crowds during the presidential race, tapping into anger over the poor state of the economy.
France's growth has stagnated and its unemployment rate is at 10 percent. The country has a high deficit and debt that economists say it must get under control, probably by reforming its social benefit system. But the poor economy has made such reforms and cuts especially unpopular, and the candidates on the extremes used that to make inroads during the presidential election.
Le Pen confounded polls by garnering 18 percent of the vote in the first round; Melenchon grabbed 11 percent of the vote.
Francois Hollande, the Socialist, won the second round.
The candidates proposed very different solutions to France's ills. Le Pen railed against immigration, while Melenchon lashed out at international finance.
The Left Front's Jean-Luc Melenchon announced yesterday that he would run for Parliament in the same northern district where Marine Le Pen, leader of the National Front, had already announced her candidacy.
Both politicians electrified crowds during the presidential race, tapping into anger over the poor state of the economy.
France's growth has stagnated and its unemployment rate is at 10 percent. The country has a high deficit and debt that economists say it must get under control, probably by reforming its social benefit system. But the poor economy has made such reforms and cuts especially unpopular, and the candidates on the extremes used that to make inroads during the presidential election.
Le Pen confounded polls by garnering 18 percent of the vote in the first round; Melenchon grabbed 11 percent of the vote.
Francois Hollande, the Socialist, won the second round.
The candidates proposed very different solutions to France's ills. Le Pen railed against immigration, while Melenchon lashed out at international finance.
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