What is the New Popular Front, winner of the surprise elections in France?

The New Popular Front (NFP), a four-party alliance of leftists and environmentalists, was the surprise winner of Sunday’s French legislative elections, with 182 MPs in a 577-seat assembly now divided between three large opposing blocs, none of which has a majority.

Here’s a look at the parties that make up the NFP, what it offers, its key figures and how well they can continue to work together.

Which parties are represented in the NFP?

The most prominent of these is La France Insoumise (LFI), led by radical left activist Jean-Luc Mélenchon. Founded in 2016, LFI is a radical left-wing and populist party, convinced that traditional political parties and organizations no longer serve democracy.

Next comes the Socialist Party (PS), the main center-left party of François Mitterrand and François Hollande. Social democratic and pro-European, it was for decades the largest party of the French left, but won less than 2% of the vote in the 2022 presidential election.

The French Green Party (LE-EELV) is the latest iteration of a movement founded in 1984. It had a stint in government, joining a left-wing alliance with the PS and the Communists in 1997, when its then leader, Dominique Voynet, was environment minister.

The French Communist Party (PCF), one of the oldest in Europe, was for a long time the main force on the post-war French left and also served in Lionel Jospin’s PS government from 1997 to 2002. It still aims to “overcome” capitalism, but is pragmatic in its approach.

What does the PFN program contain?

Although all four parties have said they have made concessions, the NFP’s programme is heavily influenced by that of the radical left LFI, including promises that would significantly increase France’s already high public spending.

He promises to: reverse Emmanuel Macron’s controversial pension changes and return the retirement age to its pre-2010 level of 60 (from 64); increase public sector wages; link wages to inflation; improve housing and youth benefits; cut income tax and social security for low earners; and introduce a wealth tax on the rich.

The NFP also aims to raise the minimum wage, fund 500,000 childcare places, cap the prices of essential foods, electricity, gas and petrol, strengthen green measures – including legislating for carbon neutrality by 2050 – and overhaul the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy.

On foreign policy, the alliance said it would demand an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, recognize Palestine, “stop Moscow’s war of aggression” in Ukraine, continue to supply arms to kyiv and “unwaveringly defend the sovereignty and freedom of the Ukrainian people.”

How did it work so well?

The same four parties had formed a similar pact, Nupes, after the 2022 presidential election and before the subsequent parliamentary vote, winning just over 150 MPs. That pact collapsed last year due to personality clashes and major policy differences.

The NFP was hastily created after President Macron decided to dissolve parliament last month following his camp’s heavy defeat in the European elections, with the far-right National Rally (RN) polling at more than 30%.

While millions of left-wing French voters readily voted for the NFP candidates, the alliance also benefited from the “republican front” that was formed after the first round, largely won by the RN.

In order not to split the anti-RN vote in the event of a second round, the NFP withdrew 132 candidates, mainly those who came in third place. But more than 80 centrists also withdrew in favour of the NFP candidates, and many centre and centre-right supporters then voted left to block the RN.

According to Ipsos, 54% of those who voted for Macron’s camp (Ensemble) in the first round and 29% of those who voted for the centre-right party Les Républicains (LR) switched to the NFP when the alliance candidate came from the PS, the Greens or the Communist Party.

Fewer people changed their minds when the NFP candidate came from the more radical LFI party, but the figures were still significant: 43% of Ensemble voters and 26% of LR voters.

Will the alliance manage to hold firm this time?

The collapse of Nupes is due mainly to Mélenchon’s authoritarian and pugnacious character and his increasingly radical positions, but also to deep political divergences concerning support for Ukraine, the war in Gaza – LFI has refused to call Hamas a terrorist group – and the EU.

The acerbic LFI leader, 72, had promised to step back from the NFP but apparently failed to do so, demanding on Sunday that the next French prime minister come from the alliance and implement “our manifesto, and only our manifesto” – without a majority.

He has even hinted that he would like to take the job. But his frequent outbursts of anger, his mean-spirited attacks on his opponents, his reflexive anti-American attitude, his Europhobia and – before Russia invaded Ukraine – his frequent pro-Moscow remarks have made him too toxic. Mélenchon has also been accused of anti-Semitism, recently describing participants in a protest against anti-Semitism as “the friends of unconditional support for the (Gaza) massacre” and appearing to downplay anti-Semitism in France as “residual.” He denies the accusations.

Many of his NFP colleagues cannot stand him, and LFI defectors who abandoned the party because of his bullying tactics and are now independent left-wing MPs, such as Clémentine Autain and François Ruffin, call him an “obstacle” to the left.

While Mélenchon and lieutenants like Manuel Bompard have ruled out any form of coalition with the center or center-right and have insisted that there can be “no negotiation” on the NFP program, other leading NFP figures, like Raphaël Glucksmann, do not share the same view.

Glucksmann, who successfully led the PS’s campaign in the European parliamentary elections, echoed centrists in saying that the election results demanded an end to “confrontational, bloc-against-bloc politics” and a willingness to “talk, to debate – and to change the political culture of France”.

Which NFP faction could win and who could lead it?

If LFI is the largest faction within the NFP, with 74 deputies, the three other parties combined outnumber the radical left party: the PS has 59 deputies, the Greens 28 and the communists 9. They should not let this happen.

Autain said Monday that LFI dissidents could try to form a separate political group within the NFP, possibly with the Communists and some overseas MPs and other unaffiliated left-wing MPs, which could further weaken LFI’s position within the alliance.

Socialist leader Olivier Faure said the NFP aimed to present a candidate for prime minister by midweek. Green leader Marine Tondelier said it could be a member of one of the four main parties but also “someone from outside politics”.

“The best method will be consensus, the collective search for intelligent solutions,” said Tondelier, one of the campaign’s stars. “If we want to govern, we must be truly united.” That will not be easy without serious compromises.