“That’s his strategy,” said a Socialist Party adviser who, like others quoted in this story, was granted anonymity to discuss party politics.
“We are capable of taking a dive in elections, but France Unbowed never takes a dive, they never go under 10 percent” in national elections, the adviser said.
“But there isn’t a scenario in which he wins in a runoff vote against Bardella.”
The difficulty for the moderate left is compounded by the fact that Mélenchon is one of the most charismatic politicians on the left. He has even drawn the reluctant admiration of Le Pen’s niece, Marion Maréchal, who called him “the most cultured” politician around.
But what’s true of the left is also to some extent true of the conservatives and the center right, which are enmeshed in internal squabbling to see who can assume Macron’s mantle.
“What are the political offers on the table and who is there to embody them?” asked a close ally of the French president.
“I can see what the extremes are offering, but in between, it’s really not clear,” he said.
That’s a gap Mélenchon is trying to exploit.