Jean-Luc Melenchon, leader of French far-left opposition party La France Insoumise (France Unbowed – LFI) and candidate for the 2027 French presidential election, delivers a speech during a political rally to present LFI’s government program for the presidential election
The 75-year-old leader of the left-wing France Unbowed (LFI) party unveiled his 2027 presidential programme at a rally in Le Bourget, near Paris, outlining plans to reverse President Emmanuel Macron’s economic policies.
“We are going to do exactly the opposite — that is to say, a policy of stimulus,” Melenchon told supporters at the rally, which drew around 17,000 people, according to his campaign director Manuel Bompard. He said the proposed stimulus would focus on boosting consumer spending and directing existing savings towards social and environmental needs. French presidential hopeful Jean-Luc Melenchon on Saturday pledged an economic stimulus programme, including price controls, higher minimum wages and increased taxes on the wealthy, while renewing his call for France to withdraw from NATO.
The manifesto also promises to reverse Macron’s pension reform, which gradually increased the minimum retirement age from 62 to 64 to strengthen public finances. Melenchon wants to restore retirement at 60 for people who have contributed to the pension system for 40 years.
“We have no business being in NATO, nor in American wars,” Melenchon said, reiterating his opposition to France’s membership of the military alliance. He also proposed building “a global front of non-aligned countries”. Melenchon’s programme, titled “L’Avenir en commun” (A Shared Future), promises measures to tackle the cost-of-living crisis.
His programme calls for a gradual withdrawal, beginning with an exit from NATO’s integrated military command. These include freezing prices, raising the minimum wage and linking wages to inflation.