France’s 2 left-wing presidential candidates refuse to unite

The two main left-leaning candidates in France’s presidential election will not join forces after all.
Socialist Benoit Hamon and far-left candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon, a former member of the Socialist Party who is supported by the Communists, both announced over the weekend that they are staying in the race, putting the Left at risk of disappearing after the first round of balloting.
In France’s two-round presidential election, voters will be choosing among a host of candidates on April 23 — and the top two vote-getters go on to compete in a presidential runoff on May 7. The exact number of presidential candidates will be set by the end of March.
Despite opinion polls suggesting that neither left-wing candidate has a chance of reaching the second round, they have shown little appetite for joining forces since the 49-year-old Hamon won the Socialist primary last month.
“I would have preferred a union around my candidacy,” Hamon said Monday, speaking on France Inter radio.
Less than two months before the election, Hamon has sealed an alliance with the environmental party’s presidential candidate Yannick Jadot, who gave up his bid and joined the Socialist hopeful.
But Hamon, who pledges a universal income to all citizens and wants to reduce France’s reliance on nuclear power, will face a major hurdle in the 65-year-old Melenchon. Both left-wing men are running neck-and-neck in opinion polls, well behind far-right National Front candidate Marine Le Pen or independent centrist Emmanuel Macron.
After they dined together in a Parisian restaurant, Melenchon issued a statement saying he and Hamon could not put aside their differences but agreed on a “mutual respect code” throughout their campaigns.
Both men have harshly criticized Socialist President Francois Hollande’s austerity politics and found common ground on criticizing an unpopular labor reform bill that led to violence in the streets last year. Their disagreements on other major issues proved to be a major deterrent.
While Hamon wants to reform the European Union (EU) to pursue more social policies, Melenchon wants France to leave European treaties and NATO.
“With 50 days left before the first round, it’s not possible to settle the difference that, for example, divides us on the essential question of Europe,” Melenchon’s statement said.
The last time the Left missed out on the second round of the presidential election was in 2002, when far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen, father of Marine, went through ahead of then-Socialist Prime Minister Lionel Jospin to face Jacques Chirac. That year, the French left-wing parties failed to unite ahead of the election and eight candidates close to the Left ran for the presidency.
“I’m telling left-wing voters and French citizens that the Left could be absent of the second round of the presidential election,” Hamon said. “This would be extremely dangerous for the country because the Right we have is extremely brutal.”
Mayor slams ‘unfriendly’ Donald
The mayor of Paris Monday slammed disparaging comments by Donald Trump about the French capital and immigration policies in Europe, suggesting the US president should focus on issues closer to home.
Trump gave a bombastic address to a conservative rally outside Washington Friday in which he defended his crackdown on immigrants and criticized long-time allies France, Sweden and Germany.
Singling out the French capital, which has suffered terror attacks by militants in recent years, he quoted a friend ‘Jim’ who refuses to visit the European city, saying:“Paris is no longer Paris.”
Mayor Anne Hidalgo responded the same day by tweeting a photo of Mickey and Minnie Mouse at the Eiffel Tower, following up with the hashtag #Donald&Jim in subsequent tweets pointing to a spike in American tourist figures this year.
“They are unfriendly comments,” Hidalgo said Monday during a visit to Tokyo, adding: “As the president of France said, this is not something big countries say to each other.”
“No one points out that a lot of crime in big US cities linked to the open sale of guns is a plague that takes many lives,” she said.
French President Francois Hollande also mocked Trump by inviting him to Disneyland Paris.
Fears linked to terror attacks in France have scared off visitors in the past two years.
In November 2015, 130 people were killed in Paris when gunmen and suicide bombers from Daesh attacked bars, restaurants, a concert hall and the Stade de France national stadium.
That attack came 10 months after two gunmen shot dead cartoonists and journalists at the Paris offices of satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo.
Hidalgo on Monday again paid tribute to the strength of the French capital in standing up to terrorism.
“There is a risk of terrorism in all major cities,” said Hidaldo, whose city is bidding to host the 2024 Olympics. “But Paris is doing well, Paris is a resilient city.”
Hidalgo was in Japan to drum up tourism and inspect Tokyo 2020 Olympic sites.
“Japanese tourists are coming back again. There has been a very substantial increase in booking numbers — up 80 percent in the first two months of this year compared to last year. That is very good news.”
After meeting Tokyo governor Yuriko Koike, Hidalgo underlined her pledge to keep costs under control if Paris beats Los Angeles in the race to host the 2024 Olympics.
“We plan to be extremely cautious,” she said. “We no longer live in a time when public finances can pay for venues that serve no (future) purpose.
The 2024 hosts will be decided by an International Olympic Committee vote this September in Lima.

Source: Arab News