The paradox of Jean-Luc Mélenchon's success

A Look at Current Events – Jonas Follonier

This is the latest twist in this extraordinary presidential campaign. Having been overtaken by Benoît Hamon a few weeks ago, Jean-Luc Mélenchon is now the third-place contender in the race for the Élysée (ranging from 18% to 20% according to the polls), behind the two frontrunners, Marine Le Pen and Emmanuel Macron, who are struggling to maintain their lead, and ahead of François Fillon, who stands at around 17%. Although polls—as has been proven recently—can be proven wrong on Election Day, they nevertheless provide a good indication of the current trend.

We can understand this trend. Jean-Luc Mélenchon is indeed running a very smart campaign, and several factors seem to explain his rapid rise in the polls. First of all, his consistency and precision: having maintained the same message since the start of the campaign, Mélenchon was the first to present his platform to the French public and to provide cost estimates for it. His candor, too: if it proves impossible to find a way out of the European treaties, his Plan B is clear—France will leave the European Union. On these issues, the National Front candidate, for example, is more ambiguous.

Jean-Luc Mélenchon also takes interesting stances that set him apart from the other left-wing candidates: a willingness to engage in dialogue with Vladimir Putin, an ambitious and comprehensive environmental agenda, and a refusal to continue military interventions around the world. But beyond his proposals, it is indeed his style that is winning over an increasingly broad electorate. The winner of both major debates, he also caused a sensation during his appearances at "L’Emission politique" and We're Not Asleep Yet.

This media success, however, involves a major paradox. Indeed, if Mélenchon has a style that appeals to people, it is largely due to his mastery of French, his extensive knowledge of national history, his references, and his demeanor as a head of state. In short, the candidate from «La France insoumise» comes across as a politician from a bygone era. He embodies a V^th A Republic That Works: A Man’s Encounter with a People. Mélenchon has a keen sense of tradition. His charm stems from a bygone era for which the French feel nostalgia.

Yet, of all eleven candidates, Jean-Luc Mélenchon is precisely the one whose platform calls for a clean break with the past, in order to move toward a completely new world. He repeats this often on television: if elected, he will convene a constituent assembly, composed of representatives of civil society, tasked with completely overhauling the institutional system. Gone is General de Gaulle’s overly authoritarian regime; make way for the Sixth Republic.^th The Republic! In his view, the Académie française is also outdated; it should be expanded to include the entire French-speaking world. As for the debt that threatens the country’s economic survival, «it’s a joke.».

It is therefore difficult to understand this electorate—ranging from the far left to the moderate center, with young people at the forefront—that has made Mélenchon the hero of social media, the last of the old-school orators capable of restoring to France the authority of its former leaders. Have they forgotten that this self-proclaimed Trotskyist is the candidate of uncertainty, of a leap into the unknown? That this unconditional admirer of dictators like Fidel Castro wants to isolate his country from the rest of the world, force French citizens living abroad to pay taxes in their country of origin, and turn his back on the economic policies that have proven successful in Germany and Great Britain, among other places? Who can be certain of the regime such a man will establish?

Beyond mere emotions, we need to examine the platforms. Too few people do that. It’s infuriating to see all these hipsters flocking to the Mélenchon camp just because it’s trendy and spewing vitriol against the Le Pen camp because «fascism is dangerous,» when the two candidates from the political extremes agree on almost every economic issue.

May the people of France at least vote with reason. This week, everything can still change.

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