French opposition leader Melenchon confirms 2027 presidential bid

The leader of France’s left-wing opposition party La France Insoumise (France Unbowed), Jean-Luc Melenchon, has announced that he will run in the country’s 2027 presidential election, confirming that it will be his fourth attempt to win France’s highest office.

“I am a candidate,” Melenchon said on Sunday when asked whether he intended to enter the race, with the first round of voting scheduled for April 2027, News.Az reports, citing foreign media.

He said his decision was motivated by what he described as a period marked by global instability and multiple overlapping crises.

“We are facing threats of general war and dramatic climate change, and we also have an emerging economic and social crisis,” he said.

Melenchon argued that rising fuel prices are connected to geopolitical conflicts involving the United States and Israel, saying that addressing them would require political action.

“There is a political cause, and therefore the solution will also be political,” he said.

He also stated that, if elected, he would adopt a different approach to US foreign policy, referring to what he described as inconsistent positions from US President Donald Trump.

Melenchon added that he would seek closer coordination with Spain on Middle East policy and called for the termination of the European Union–Israel partnership agreement.

He further argued that Israel could not operate without the EU and described both the United States and Israel as acting like “paper tigers.”

Melenchon has previously run in the 2012, 2017, and 2022 French presidential elections.

France’s current president, Emmanuel Macron of the Renaissance party, has been in office since 2017. Having served two terms, he is constitutionally barred from seeking re-election.

News.Az 

By Nijat Babayev