On Sunday, Marine Le Pen's National Rally was supposed to cement this narrative by winning the most seats in the second round of the French legislative elections. But it was not to be. The leftwing New Popular Front, an alliance whose largest cohort, La France Insoumise, is led by the unapologetically radical Jean-Luc Melenchon, came top instead, surprising observers and delighting the country's antifascist left.
Its programme: an unashamedly social democratic formula of taxing the rich, public investment, reversing attacks on pensions and raising public sector wages. And in this scenario, of course, Keir Starmer is the centrist President Emmanuel Macron.
After his party was routed in European elections earlier this year, Macron dissolved the legislature. His gamble was this: a fragmented left would not get its act together, so he could frame the contest as a straight fight between his profoundly unpopular presidency and the far right.
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