Mélenchon seeks May 2 runoff with 421,308 votes as target
The 75-year-old leftist aims for a winner-take-all showdown with Marine Le Pen after a near-miss in 2022.
By Adrian Kovalenko ·
Jean-Luc Mélenchon addressed 20,000 supporters in a hall north of Paris on Saturday, vowing to rewrite the rules of the French republic. The 75-year-old candidate, running for president for the fourth time, told the crowd that everything must change. He seeks to replace the Fifth Republic, founded by Charles de Gaulle in 1958, with a new constitution drafted by a special assembly of citizens.
Mélenchon is eyeing a place in the May 2 runoff, where he could face far-right front-runner Marine Le Pen. In the 2022 election, 421,308 votes kept him from the final round. A victory in May would place him in a direct contest with Le Pen, a matchup that could leave traditional parties watching from the sidelines.
The candidate’s program spans more than 1,000 points and includes lowering the voting age to 16 and restoring retirement at 60. He plans to impose a moratorium on artificial intelligence and increase taxes on the wealthy. If elected, he would also propose pulling France, the European Union’s only nuclear-armed power, out of NATO’s military command.
His campaign strategy targets young voters in Seine-Saint-Denis, the poorest department in mainland France. Supporters at the rally wore jerseys with his name and the number 27. The event coincided with a high school protest movement over crumbling infrastructure and teacher shortages that began in September. Police arrested thousands of students during the demonstrations.
Mélenchon has aligned himself with these protests, warning the government not to touch young people. His party also embraced cost-of-living demonstrations last month, which turned to looting and arson in more than 20 cities. Rioters torched the 19th-century City Hall in Limoges during the unrest. Le Pen accused his party of plunging France into chaos, while Mélenchon blamed police tactics.
Critics describe him as a showman who demands blind devotion. A 2025 investigative book characterized his leadership style as treating doubters as traitors. He has been convicted over a 2018 confrontation with police who searched his party’s offices. During that incident, he told the officers he was the Republic.
The old political order in France is fracturing. The Socialists and conservative Republicans, who traded power for decades, won just 6.5% of the first-round presidential vote between them in 2022. Center-right former Prime Minister Édouard Philippe is also vying to face Le Pen in the runoff. If the center unites, second place could slip away from Mélenchon.
At the close of the rally, Mélenchon quoted the 1917 anthem of communists and socialists, turning a 2017 gaffe by President Emmanuel Macron into a slogan. He told the crowd that Macron said they were nothing, so they should be everything. The hall answered by singing La Marseillaise.
