The French presidential election last April resolved nothing but the extension of Emmanuel Macron’s term in office, which is far from answering the questions that are troubling the French people. Although Macron delayed the formation of a new government as long as he could, he barely managed to form a utilitarian cabinet, with no clear programme and no clear priorities, and a discarded prime minister. Such ambiguity is but a reflection of the lack of popular support: his election was the result of the rejection of Le Pen accompanied by a large abstention.
The June parliamentary elections could significantly turn this lack of vision and political will around: thanks to his excellent vote (22%), Jean-Luc Mélenchon managed for the first time in a long time to unite all French leftists in a single programmatic proposal. Thus, La France Insoumise (LFI), the ecologists, the PC, the PS and other organisations, with the support of the NPA (the new anti-capitalist party), are putting forward a broad list of candidates who could win a parliamentary majority. As Mélenchon himself announced, “it is a question of electing me prime minister”: the president must appoint as head of government the representative of the parliamentary majority that will be elected on 12 and 19 June.
Indeed, the French constitution stipulates that the president presides, and that the parliamentary majority government governs. This is the detail that made possible the “cohabitation” of a left-wing president (François Mitterrand) with a right-wing government (Jacques Chirac/Édouard Balladur), and then the “cohabitation” of a right-wing president (Jacques Chirac) with a left-wing government (Lionel Jospin).
The French abroad have their own deputies. In the Latin American constituency, the candidate of the left-wing coalition is a Franco-Chilean: Christian Rodriguez.
Needless to say, his election is extremely important for many reasons. Among them: to give a majority to a left-wing government, to offer genuine parliamentary representation to the many Franco-Latin Americans in Latin America, to give the European Union the social dimension it has never had, to contribute to peace in a Europe that only aspires to be a US Protectorate, to generate stability in a world that is seeing the gradual disappearance of unilateral US domination, to balance financial and economic exchanges between the different regions of the world, to restore to the United Nations the primordial role that should be its own in international relations.
All these reasons lead us to ask all French people living in Latin America to vote for Christian Rodriguez. A militant whose career has taken him from the struggle of Salvador Allende in Chile to the French and European social struggles: a lifetime of political consequence and loyalty, virtues that are increasingly appreciated in the midst of the opportunistic environment.
