Link: https://www.euronews.com/2026/10/24/thousands-protest-against-far-right-national-rally-congress-in-france

I'm wondering if the 2027 French presidential election might turn out like the 2024 US presidential election did.

What I mean is: what if left-wing voters refuse to back the moderate (Edouard Philippe in France, Kamala Harris in the US), which just helps the far-right candidate to win (Le Pen in France, Trump in the US)?

Melenchon is liked by the left in France, but the polls show he fares much worse against Le Pen than Philippe does. If the second round is Melenchon vs Le Pen, then Le Pen's victory becomes more likely.

Rally against the rally…

what if left-wing voters refuse to back the moderate (Edouard Philippe in France, Kamala Harris in the US), which just helps the far-right candidate to win (Le Pen in France, Trump in the US)?

If the second round is Melenchon vs Le Pen, then Le Pen's victory becomes more likely.

So we're gonna blame the leftists for not voting for the center right, but not the center right for not voting left againt the far right? And it's Mélenchon's fault people don't like him, but not Philippe's fault people don't like him?

I guess with the French election I'm mainly thinking about the second round. If it's Philippe versus Le Pen then hopefully enough people will back Philippe, because I think Le Pen would be worse.

In the first round maybe there's more freedom to vote for who you really like. But if it ends up being Melenchon versus Le Pen in the second round, it could be pretty difficult to stop Le Pen winning.

But if it ends up being Melenchon versus Le Pen in the second round, it could be pretty difficult to stop Le Pen winning.

Because the center wouldn't vote for Mélenchon against Le Pen? If that's true then we're already dead. My point is I doubt it's true, though.

so why aren't the centrist voting left ? they're really just embarrassed rightwing voters.

that aside, fuck Melenchon and his anti Ukraine, pro Russie stance.

I understand your stance but to say Mélanchon is anti-ukraine is somewhat reductive. He is anti anti escalation and promotes dialogue and is fenerally non-alignement. Now with that being said I know dialogue with Russia is a big lol. I know who I am voting for next election but as I said before I am very pro ukraine and I have given financial support to their struggle. I am with LFI and I strongly oppose any anti-ukraine or pro russian argument within the party.

Yeah, 'leftist' Politicians that have this kind of stance infuriate me to no end.

If you're anti Ukraine and pro Russian you're not Anti-fascist. And if you're not Anti-fascist, are you truly on the left?

If the problem is anti-americanism, I can understand that, but the solution to that is supporting Ukraine even more, so they don't have to depend on the US.

Who owns media in France is an important factor.

For years, the language used to describe each side has been changing. For those that vote right, the negative things that can be said are indeed the selling points. They are racist and jealous that someone with darker skin has more success, or that their taxes help people poorer than them, or that they are single but two dudes have found love... So, many of the things the left stands for are dangerous to them.

My inlaws here in France are very conservative, eurosceptic, transphobic, whatevers. This is literally what they think will happen:

• Left wins: country turns into Cuba or joins Russia, because they are "bad at economics" the debt destroys everything, we are all conscripted to work, children are trafficked
• Right wins: the violent leftists will riot and roam the streets murdering women and children and forcing men into labour camps or military conscription
• Centre wins: something something Dictatorship

They live in fear. They fear piercings and hair dye. They fear UBI and sex ed in schools. They fear vaccines. They fear the fucking vegan hotdogs at IKEA! But they think they are the smartest people in the room.

I'm just looking at polling. In fact Melenchon now seems to be in second place for the first round, behind Le Pen, so perhaps he is likely to get into the second round. But the problem is that he fares worse than Philippe in the second round against Le Pen.

The most recent second round polls seem to show this:

• Philippe ~44%, Le Pen ~56%
• Melenchon ~31%, Le Pen ~69%

Of course polling can change. Pollsters in 2016 thought Hillary Clinton would enter the White House. But still, at the moment, if Melenchon gets to the second round, it looks like a victory for Le Pen is more likely.

Maybe actually I'm making a mistake by comparing the French election with the 2024 US election because of the different voting systems.

I suppose leftist voters in France might think "if we can get Melenchon into the second round then moderates will have to vote for him to keep out Le Pen". So then the second round polling between Melenchon and Le Pen might change when the reality sets in that Melenchon and Le Pen are the only two options. Which is different to the single-round US presidential election, where the only two realistic candidates to win were Trump and Harris. In that US election, every anti-Trump non-voter just helped Trump.

As for Melenchon being anti-Ukraine, I don't know his stance in detail, but like you, I'm not in favour of anti-Ukraine stances.

Your in-laws sound like GB News viewers here in the UK. GB News is a right-wing news TV channel, and it has only existed for a few years. Previously people had to watch BBC News or Sky News, which are both pretty moderate. But now right-leaning voters can get sucked into GB News propaganda. They are never shown different sides of an argument presented fairly; instead everything they are shown is highly biased.

JML is not "anti-Ukraine" but is clearly not fond of the status quo. Don't forget to check the instance of the people commenting, it usually says a lot about their own biases

They swear they don't watch the news or even use social media that much. Telegram is their main source of craziness.

The "centrists" are probably going to vote glucksmann, royal, or whoever is the "feel good" gauche-bobo candidate this time around.

Let's not call the government throwing grenades at high-schoolers "centrist".