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00:00Well, for more on this new leftist alliance, we can bring in Hélène Conway-Mouret, a
00:05French senator with the Socialist Party. Thank you very much for speaking to us here on France24
00:09today. What is your take on this new left-wing alliance ahead of those upcoming legislative
00:14elections? Is this, in your opinion, the right way to go?
00:17Well, good morning. I think there is no choice at all, or no other choice to be made, given
00:26the danger of having Mr. Bardella as prime minister of France and having the extreme
00:32right in power. So we have no time. I mean, you know, the candidates have to organize
00:42themselves and declare that they are candidates by the end of the week. They have to organize
00:49the whole election, which is going to be in three weeks' time. So the danger is either
00:55to come together and try to prevent the extreme right seizing power or continuing to try
01:04to survive individually, which is not an option today, as the left is the only party really
01:14capable of blocking the extreme right coming to power.
01:17So you say that parties on the left acting individually simply isn't an option. But
01:21how on earth do you go about drafting a single manifesto that all these parties on the left,
01:27including your own socialist party, can get behind in good conscience?
01:31Well, manifesto is not going to be published in four days. So it's the main points that
01:42are going to be agreed upon, which is already the case as to the type of campaign, the main
01:50options that are going to be presented. This is a snap election. This is something that
01:55has never been in France. And in fact, everybody has been taken by surprise. I mean, the president
02:02didn't have to call this snap election, given that the majority in the European Parliament
02:10hasn't changed. So it's simply, I think, for him to live up to his dream of 2017, when
02:16he felt he was going to isolate the extreme left and extreme right and build this big majority
02:23center, right, left. But it hasn't happened. What he has done since 2017 is, in fact, make
02:33the extremes grow. And now that he has realized that they're out of control, he's trying to
02:40relive this dream, which hasn't worked seven years ago. So I think he's taking a big risk,
02:47but not just for himself. He likes gambling, he likes taking risks. But now he's creating
02:54an instability, political instability in France, which is not a good thing after, you know,
03:01seeing its economic grade being downgraded and so on. So it is a big risk. And I think, you know,
03:13the left is coming together, just, you know, forgetting, you know, the differences that there
03:20may be between the different parties, simply to say that we're doing that for our country.
03:25Now, you say it's time to put various differences between the leftist parties behind you. But
03:30there are major sticking points between different parties on the left. I'm thinking just for one
03:35example, parties' stances on the war in Gaza. How are you going to resolve those in, as you say,
03:44less than three weeks' time? Well, they do not have to be resolved. As I said, you know,
03:50it is not the competition, the normal kind of competition between, you know, parties who try to
03:56have a maximum of candidates being elected. This is coming together to block the extreme right.
04:04And then having, you know, a majority within the National Assembly that will not be, you know,
04:12from the extreme right. This is the only objective. So I think those differences are not going to
04:19come to play a major role, as indeed, when you look at the votes for the past few years,
04:26between the left-wing parties, you see that, you know, they're voting together, you know,
04:33against the pension reform that the government has put forward. Now, there is a new unemployment
04:40reform being, you know, put on the table. And on those, on all the social issues,
04:50indeed, there is a convergence of views. So that is on that, that, you know, the left-wing
04:57parties are coming together. And my last question, and it is a big one, do we have any idea of who
05:03would be leading this left-wing alliance? Would, for example, the socialists consider Jean-Luc
05:08MĂ©lenchon in the name of leftist unity? Well, I think there is a National Council this evening,
05:20you know, being called. So I think, you know, there will be voices against Jean-Luc MĂ©lenchon,
05:28who does not represent, you know, the vast majority of the socialist kind of views,
05:35especially on the international affairs. So I think, you know, being, I say, sorry for repeating
05:42myself, but it's a three-week election, you know, campaign. And it's not who will emerge as the
05:50leader of the left or the right or whatever is, well, whether we will succeed collectively in
05:56blocking the extreme right coming to power. I mean, that is the most important thing. And then,
06:01you know, 2027 will be, of course, you know, in people's minds, but that's the next election,
06:08not this one. Let's not confuse, you know, the elections and what is at stake at the moment.
06:14Hélène Conway-Mouret, French senator with the Socialist Party,
06:18thank you so much for speaking to us here on Daybreak today.
06:21Thank you to you.