Jean-Luc Mélenchon

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Jean-Luc Mélenchon (2013)

Jean-Luc Mélenchon (born August 19, 1951 in Tangier ) is a French politician . He was the founder and chairman of the left-wing Parti de Gauche party until 2014 , was a presidential candidate for the Front de gauche alliance in the 2012 presidential election and stood in the 2017 presidential election on behalf of the La France insoumise movement he founded for this purpose (“Unyielding France”; FI or also φ) and received 19.58% of the vote. He has been a member of the French National Assembly since June 2017 .

Career

Beginnings in the Socialist Party

Jean-Luc Mélenchon was born in Tangier, which was then an International Zone . His mother was an elementary school teacher, his father a telecommunications operator and pied noir . In 1962 the family left North Africa and settled in France. Mélenchon was already politically active in May 1968 as a student at the Lycée in Lons-le-Saunier . He then became involved in the student association Union nationale des étudiants de France and in the Trotskyist organization communiste internationaliste (OCI). As head of the OCI in Besançon , he campaigned for their cause throughout the Jura department .

After studying modern literature and philosophy, he joined the socialist party, the Parti socialiste (PS), led by François Mitterrand in 1977 . During this time he went from being a political activist to a professional politician, especially as a close associate of the Mayor of Massy , Claude Germon , who was also a member of the PS Executive Committee. In 1981 Mélenchon became the first secretary of the PS in the Essonne department as a representative of the Mitterrandist wing of the party . In 1983 he was elected to the city council of Massy, ​​in 1989 he was deputy mayor of the city. Since 1985 he has been a member of the General Council of the Department and from 1998 to 2000 its vice-president.

At the national level, Mélenchon was intermittently a member of the French Senate for the Essonne department from 1986 to 2010 . From March 2000 to May 2002 he was Minister for Vocational Training in the Jospin Cabinet . Together with Henri Emmanuelli , Mélenchon represented the left-wing socialist current Nouveau Monde within the Parti socialiste (PS) . Although the party had voted in favor of a yes to the European constitution in a strike vote , Mélenchon campaigned for a no in the French referendum on the constitution in 2005 .

Left of the socialists

In 2008, Mélenchon resigned from the PS when Ségolène Royal reached first place in a trial vote for party presidency. He accused Royal of following a “right course” and announced that he wanted to found a new left-wing rallying party , the Parti de Gauche .

In the European elections in France in 2009 , he was the top candidate of the newly founded party in the Sud-Ouest constituency and moved to the European Parliament as a member. Mélenchon was subsequently criticized for its frequent absence from parliamentary votes compared to other MPs. He was re-elected to the European Parliament in the 2014 European elections.

Presidential candidacy in 2012 and 2017

He ran as a candidate in the 2012 presidential election. His election campaign received a lot of media and public attention. In the first ballot he received around eleven percent of the vote and thus fourth place. For the runoff election between the candidates François Hollande and Nicolas Sarkozy , he made a recommendation for Hollande. In the election to the National Assembly , which took place shortly after the presidential election , he ran in the constituency of Hénin-Beaumont in the Pas-de-Calais , a stronghold of the right-wing extremist Front National (FN), in order, in his own words, to the also candidate leader of the FN, Marine Le Pen , "to block the way". Mélenchon got 21.5% of the vote in the first ballot. In third place behind the socialist candidate Philippe Kemel (23.7%) and Marine Le Pen (42.3%), he missed the second ballot. In this he supported the socialist candidate who narrowly won the election.

During Hollande's presidency, Mélenchon criticized his policies several times as being too 'right'. On February 10, 2016, Mélenchon announced on the evening news of the TV channel TF1 that she would run as a non-party candidate in the 2017 presidential election campaign . The announcement was surprising insofar as it was not coordinated with Mélenchon's allies of the Communist Party (PCF), according to their information. The PCF target an area code (Primaire) on the participation of all left-wing parties; Mélenchon had already made his rejection of this project clear beforehand. Arnaud Montebourg spoke out in favor of such a left-wing alliance in France. As a result, the PCF declared that it no longer wanted to support Mélenchon in the presidential election. This was interpreted as the willingness of the PCF to support Montebourg as a joint presidential candidate.

On March 11, 2017, Mélenchon announced that it had obtained the 500 supporting signatures from elected political officials required to be eligible for election. On March 20, 2017, he was one of the top five presidential candidates rated in the opinion polls to take part in a televised debate , as well as in a second debate with all 11 candidates, which took place on April 4. One from France 2 for April 20th, d. H. A few days before the first ballot, planned further television rounds were rejected by both Mélenchon and his competitor Emmanuel Macron , whereupon the broadcaster canceled the debate. Three days before the election, a program was broadcast in a new format (without debate between the candidates): first of all, each of the eleven candidates was interviewed for 15 minutes; then each of the candidates had two and a half minutes (live) for a summary statement. On April 7, 2017, Mélenchon was tied for the first round in an election survey by the BVA polling institute for the first ballot with François Fillon (both 19%) and only slightly behind Macron and Le Pen (each 23%). Mélenchon had 7 percentage points more than three weeks earlier.

Mélenchon finally achieved 7,059,951 votes in the first ballot on April 23, 2017, which corresponds to 19.58%, and thus reached 4th place out of 11 candidates, behind Fillon (20.01%), Le Pen (21.30% ) and Macron (24.01%). Macron and Le Pen made it to the second ballot.

On the day after the first round of voting, Mélenchon did not recommend voting for the runoff on May 7, 2017, unlike in the 2012 and 2002 presidential election campaign for the runoff between Jacques Chirac and Marine Le Pen's father, Jean-Marie Le Pen . Instead, he announced an online vote among members of his movement La France insoumise (Insurgent France) on an election recommendation, the result of which was published on May 2nd. Members who were registered by the evening of the first ballot could choose between abstention, invalid election or voting for Emmanuel Macron. A clear majority of 65% voted for abstention (36%) or not voting (29%), and just under 35% for voting in favor of Macron. There was no option to vote for Le Pen. Mélenchon himself had already announced on April 26th that he would not disclose his personal decision. Polls shortly after the first round of voting showed that between 12 and 18% of FI first-round voters wanted to vote for Le Pen in the runoff.

After the 2017 presidential candidacy

In the parliamentary elections following the presidential election in June 2017, Melenchon campaigned with his party for the creation of a left opposition under his leadership. On this platform, La France won 17 MPs; Mélenchon himself was elected as a member of the French National Assembly in the second ballot in Marseille ; he had to resign from his mandate in the European Parliament because of rules against the accumulation of offices.

In the 2019 European elections , his party, with Manon Aubry as the top candidate, won 6.3% of the vote and won 6 European mandates. This was considered a disappointing result; Mélenchon came under party-internal criticism for his political positions and his leadership style and publicly considered a temporary withdrawal from politics.

On December 9, 2019, Jean-Luc Mélenchon was sentenced by a court in Bobigny near Paris to a three-month suspended sentence and a fine of 8,000 euros for resisting state violence (rébellion) , provocation and intimidation of officials. The court found it proven that Mélenchon had threatened and physically assaulted anti-corruption investigators who wanted to search his party's headquarters. Because of the search were FI -Abgeordneten alleged sham pursuits as well as Mélenchon alleged financial irregularities in the presidential campaign of 2017. Mélenchon himself spoke of a "political process".

Also in December 2019, a blog post by Jean-Luc Mélenchon caused a stir. Mélenchon attributed the defeat of Labor candidate Jeremy Corbyn in the British general election in 2019 to his reaction to anti-Semitism allegations. Corbyn had apologized and made commitments and thereby showed weakness. The allegations involved a campaign by the English chief rabbi and the Israeli Likud party . In the same blog post, Mélenchon accused the Jewish umbrella organization in France, CRIF , of “arrogant and sectarian dictates”. The CRIF then declared that Mélenchon's statements were reminiscent of " Vichy rhetoric about the Jewish world conspiracy". French politicians also condemned the statements.

Political positions

Mélenchon is a sharp critic of the EU's austerity policies and liberal economic reforms. In the 2017 presidential election campaign, Mélenchon announced that if he won the election, he would completely renegotiate the European treaties and abolish the Stability and Growth Pact . If these negotiations fail, France will leave the European monetary union under his leadership or the European Union immediately after a referendum . The European Central Bank should lose its independence.

The minimum wage should be increased to 1,700 gross Euros to Mélenchon's election program of monthly € 1,480. Weekly working hours are to be reduced to 32 hours and annual leave for employees is to be extended by one week to six weeks. Statutory health insurance should reimburse 100% of all health costs. The private supplementary insurance ( Mutuelles ) is to be dissolved and integrated into the state health insurance. At the end of his term of office, there should be no more homeless people. Employees should be able to retire at the age of 60 after 40 years of contributions to the social security system. The company wants to forbid Mélenchon from dismissing employees for “stock market-related” reasons. Important large companies are to be nationalized, including the electricity supplier Électricité de France , the energy supply group Engie , certain sectors of the manufacturer of transport and energy systems Alstom and the energy plant group Areva and the shipyard STX France .

Mélenchon also wants to create 200,000 new civil servant positions, including 60,000 for teachers and 10,000 for police officers and gendarmes. The progression of the income tax Mélenchon wants to strengthen; From an annual income of 400,000 euros, an income tax rate of 90% should apply. According to Mélenchon, wealth tax should be increased, while corporate taxes should be reduced.

Mélenchon wants to phase out nuclear power and achieve 100 percent supply of the country with renewable energies by 2050 . A “green rule” is supposed to prohibit the extraction of non-renewable resources from nature. Mélenchon wants to give up certain major projects that are considered to be environmentally harmful, such as the planned airport in Notre-Dame-des-Landes and the nuclear waste repository in Bure .

Mélenchon wants to fundamentally rebuild the French state and its constitution and replace what he calls the “presidential monarchy”, the Fifth French Republic , which he says is ruled by a “ caste ” as an “ oligarchy ” , with a 6th republic, to which he wants to convene a constituent assembly after his election as president and the subsequent parliamentary elections . Not a single member of the parliamentary chambers of the Fifth Republic should be a member of this. The drafted constitution is to be submitted to the people for approval by referendum . The new republic envisaged by Mélenchon is to have a bicameral parliament with a chamber elected by proportional voting and an Assemblée de l'intervention populaire et du long terme (German for example: assembly of popular intervention and for long-term issues), which expresses itself on the social and ecological consequences of proposed legislation should. The judiciary should be subordinate to parliament. Lobbyists should be banned from entering parliament. Members of parliament should be able to be recalled by referendum; Anyone who has been convicted of corruption should become ineligible for life.

Mélenchon is also striving for the French overseas territories to become a member of the Bolivarian Alliance for America founded on the initiative of Hugo Chávez of Venezuela and Cuba , which earned him sharp criticism. Mélenchon had previously expressed sympathy for the socialist governments and leaders of the two Latin American countries. After Fidel Castro's death, for example, he called a demonstration in downtown Paris, praising Castro and his regime. The philosopher Michel Onfray then accused him of turning a blind eye to the fact that the country was a dictatorship and that Castro "lived like a prince from an oil monarchy". Laurent Berger, chairman of the trade union confederation CFDT , also criticized Mélenchon for his “quite totalitarian vision” and admiration for Chavist Venezuela. He himself shares “almost no” position with Mélenchon.

In July 2017, Mélenchon criticized President Macron for acknowledging France's shared responsibility for the Holocaust . Mélenchon takes the view that the Vichy regime , which was actively involved in the persecution of the Jews, was not a legitimate representative of the French nation and that France could therefore not be responsible for the acts of the regime.

Foreign policy and style

Germany

Mélenchon is known for his relentless, polemical and - also in dialogue with journalists - often aggressive discourse. In Germany, Mélenchon's statements in June 2013 in a radio interview on France Inter caused a stir, in which he mocked the Germans. During a heated television debate with the Union politician Ingeborg Gräßle , Mélenchon said that “the French had not elected a CDU-CSU government”.

After Chancellor Merkel had classified the previous reform efforts in France and Italy as inadequate in December 2014, Mélenchon replied on Twitter : “Shut up, Ms. Merkel! France is free. Better take care of your poor and your ruined infrastructure. ”Jean-Luc Mélenchon, however, denies being racist towards the Germans and claims to have founded his party hand in hand with Oskar Lafontaine . When Chancellor Merkel gave President Hollande a barrel of pickled Bismarck herring on the occasion of his visit to Stralsund on May 10, 2014 , Mélenchon referred to a pun in French in a pamphlet entitled “Bismarck's Hering - German Gift” (“Le hareng de Bismarck - Le poison allemand ») , in which the terms poisson for fish and poison for poison only differ in one letter. The pamphlet sparked a heated discussion. The most popular contradiction came from the former French environment minister Cécile Duflot , who countered in the newspaper Liberation with an open letter to Mélenchon entitled Germany is not our enemy . On the other hand, Oskar Lafontaine felt compelled to give the pamphlet a positive review in the daily newspaper Junge Welt .

After the referendum in the Greek sovereign debt crisis in early July 2015, Mélenchon said that the "right-wing German government" was primarily responsible for the worsening of the crisis.

Ukraine and Russia

In the 2014 Crimean crisis , he criticized the US and EU's Ukraine policy. The plan to move the NATO borders closer to Russia is unacceptable, stupid, irresponsible and provocative. In this context, he described the USA as “North American puppeteers” and parts of the new Ukrainian government as “pro-European Nazis”.

Web links

Commons : Jean-Luc Mélenchon  - collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikiquote: Jean-Luc Mélenchon  - Quotes

Footnotes

  1. ↑ a b c d e f Éric Phélippeau : Mélenchon Jean-Luc (1951–). In: Encyclopædia Universalis . Retrieved April 7, 2017 .
  2. ↑ http://elections.interieur.gouv.fr
  3. ↑ Mélenchon et Dolez quittent le PS après la victoire de Royal. France24.com / Agence France Presse , November 7, 2008, accessed June 11, 2013 (French).
  4. ↑ Jean-Luc Mélenchon. (No longer available online.) VoteWatch Europe, archived from the original on June 26, 2014 ; accessed on June 11, 2013 (English): "Participation in roll-call votes: 62.88% […] Ranking: 727th."
  5. ↑ Judith Duportail: Jean-Luc Mélenchon, you cancre Parlement européen. Le Figaro (online), April 11, 2013, accessed June 11, 2013 (French).
  6. ↑ a b Stefan Simons: Red People's Tribune divides the left camp. Spiegel Online, March 28, 2013, accessed June 12, 2013 .
  7. ^ First round of elections in France: Hollande wins, Le Pen shocks many French. Spiegel Online, April 23, 2012, accessed June 11, 2013 .
  8. ^ Election campaign in the north of France: duel of the populists. Spiegel Online, June 5, 2012, accessed June 11, 2013 .
  9. ↑ Clear victory of the left in France . (No longer available online.) Swiss Radio DRS, June 11, 2012, formerly in the original ; Retrieved June 11, 2013 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / drs.srf.ch  
  10. ^ Jean-Luc Mélenchon, candidat à la présidentielle, à contre-courant d'une primaire. In: L'Obs . February 11, 2016, accessed February 11, 2016 (French).
  11. ↑ Montebourg tend la main au PCF en prônant "l'union des gauches" , bfmtv, 5 November 2016
  12. ^ Pourquoi le "non" du PCF à Mélenchon arrange beaucoup de monde Liberation, November 6, 2016
  13. ↑ Mélenchon décroche ses 500 signatures. In: liberation.fr . March 11, 2017, accessed April 7, 2017 (French).
  14. ↑ Liberation: Mélenchon refuse de participer au débat du 20 avril, Macron du même avis. In: liberation.fr . March 28, 2017, accessed April 7, 2017 (French).
  15. ↑ Débat du 20 avril annulé sur France 2: le fiasco de l'info. In: leparisien.fr . April 6, 2017, accessed April 7, 2017 (French).
  16. ↑ Un dernier round télévisé pour les candidats (mais sans débat). In: liberation.fr . April 20, 2017, accessed April 22, 2017 (French).
  17. ↑ Selon un sondage, Mélenchon est désormais à égalité avec Fillon. BFM TV , April 7, 2017, accessed April 9, 2017 (French).
  18. ↑ 100% counted votes First ballot on elections.interieur.gouv.fr . Accessed April 24, 2017
  19. ↑ Le refus de Mélenchon de soutenir le "front republicain" décrié. Le Figaro , April 24, 2017, accessed April 26, 2017 .
  20. ↑ Victor Dhollande-Monnier: VIDÉO - En 2002, Mélenchon n'avait pas hésité à appeler à voter pour Chirac contre Le Pen. Europe 1 , April 24, 2017, accessed on April 26, 2017 .
  21. ↑ Rachid Laïreche: Pour le second tour, La France insoumise se coupe en trois. In: liberation.fr . May 2, 2017, accessed May 4, 2017 (French).
  22. ^ A b Second tour de la presidential: Mélenchon ne dira pas pour qui il vote. lesechos.fr, April 26, 2017, accessed April 26, 2017 .
  23. ^ Ni Le Pen, ni Macron: Mélenchon holds on to the left bearing. Neues Deutschland , April 24, 2017, accessed April 25, 2017 .
  24. ↑ Le Monde: Jean-Luc Mélenchon pourrait se mettre - un temps - en retrait de la vie politique , June 4, 2019, accessed on June 5, 2019 (French)
  25. ↑ Fine for the head of the French left-wing movement LFI for attacking judicial representatives. NZZ, December 9, 2019, accessed on December 21, 2019 .
  26. ^ 3 months probation for France's left-wing politician Mélenchon. euronews, December 9, 2019, accessed on December 21, 2019 .
  27. ↑ Jeremy Corbyn should never have apologized over anti-Semitism claims, says French far-Left ally. The Telegraph, December 15, 2019, accessed December 21, 2019 .
  28. ^ Chairman of the French Left Party blames Jews for Corbyn's election defeat. Mena-Watch, December 20, 2019, accessed December 21, 2019 .
  29. ↑ Jean-Luc Mélenchon: France's left-wing boss is blaspheming Germany. Spiegel Online, June 10, 2013, accessed June 11, 2013 .
  30. ↑ a b c d e f Accueil: Jean-Luc Mélenchon: son parcours, son projet, sa campagne. In: lesechos.fr. April 14, 2017, accessed April 16, 2017 (French).
  31. ^ A b c Christian Schubert: Mélenchon trumps: France's economy fears a shift to the left. In: FAZ.net . April 15, 2017. Retrieved April 16, 2017 .
  32. ^ Cuba, Chavez, Alliance bolivarienne… Jean-Luc Mélenchon répond à ses adversaires. In: lemonde.fr . April 15, 2017, accessed April 16, 2017 (French).
  33. ↑ Homage to Fidel Castro: pour Michel Onfray, Jean-Luc Mélenchon "a fumé la moquette". In: lci.fr . November 27, 2016, accessed April 16, 2017 (French).
  34. ↑ The leader of the CFDT ne partage “quasiment aucune” position avec Mélenchon. In: latribune.fr . April 13, 2017, accessed April 16, 2017 (French).
  35. ↑ Far-left French Leader Slams Macron for Accepting French Complicity in Holocaust , Haaretz, July 19, 2017
  36. ↑ Congrès du Parti de gauche: le discours se durcit. L'Express (online), March 24, 2013, accessed June 12, 2013 (French).
  37. ↑ Pour un Français sur trois, Mélenchon “a raison” de parler haut et weiter. In: lexpress.fr . May 3, 2013, accessed June 12, 2013 (French).
  38. ↑ Michaela Wiegel: Unpleasant Germans. In: FAZ.net . June 10, 2013, accessed June 11, 2013 .
  39. ^ Daniel Schneidermann: Chez Pujadas, le casting orienté des étrangers de service. In: rue89.nouvelobs.com . May 12, 2014, accessed October 12, 2014 (French).
  40. ^ Jean-Luc Mélenchon: Contributions sur l'Allemagne. Mélenchon's blog, accessed October 12, 2014 .
  41. ^ Cécile Duflot: L'Allemagne n'est pas notre ennemie. In: liberation.fr . May 19, 2015, accessed April 30, 2017 (French).
  42. ^ Oskar Lafontaine : Poisonous herrings. In: jungewelt.de . May 23, 2015, accessed April 30, 2017 .
  43. ↑ "Greece can no longer provide anything in return" , Deutschlandfunk, July 8, 2015
  44. ^ Mélenchon: les Occidentaux "irresponsables". Le Figaro (online) / AFP , March 10, 2014, accessed March 11, 2014 (French).
personal data
SURNAME Mélenchon, Jean-Luc
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French politician (Parti de Gauche), MEP
DATE OF BIRTH August 19, 1951
PLACE OF BIRTH Tangier