Mélenchon refuses to take a position in French presidential runoff
By
Alex Lantier
29 April 2017
In a 30-minute video posted on his blog Friday, Unsubmissive France (UF) leader and defeated presidential candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon decided to take no position on the May 7 presidential runoff between neo-fascist candidate Marine Le Pen and ex-banker Emmanuel Macron.
This is a cowardly evasion of political responsibility. Mélenchon won nearly 20 percent of the vote and carried cities including Marseille, Toulouse, Lille and the working-class northern suburbs of Paris. He spoke yesterday as youth in cities across France protested the dead end of an election between a neo-fascist and an ex-minister of the current Socialist Party (PS) government who supports the state of emergency, deep austerity and a return of the draft.
Under these conditions, the Parti de l’égalité socialiste (PES) has called for an active boycott of the election, to mobilize the explosive political opposition and social anger in the working class against whichever reactionary candidate wins the runoff.
Mélenchon, however, made clear that he would participate in the May 7 vote, but stressed that he would keep his vote a secret from the UF movement’s Internet membership so they would not feel betrayed by the decision he took. He indicated only that he would not vote for Le Pen.
“I will go vote,” he said, and continued: “But as for whom I will vote, I will not tell you. You don’t have to be a great genius to figure out what I will do. But why won’t I tell you? So that you can stay grouped together… So that each one of you, whatever decision he takes, can feel comfortable about the vote he cast for me in the presidential election, can feel proud of his vote, can feel that he was not…