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What direction for the French left? La France Insoumise's populism problem.

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To the extent that La France Insoumise is doing the work to get people involved in political campaigns, I think that's a very positive thing for the left. At the same time, there's a lot of ways Mélenchon and some aspects of the movement are also posing a danger for this reconstruction. This artificial combativeness against other radical leftist movements can be harmful, and to some extent Mélenchon himself is not perhaps the best person to be the face of a new left in France.

Journalist Jacob Hamburger examines the present state and future choices of France's left wing insurgent movement La France Insoumise - rebelling against the failures of France's mainstream socialist party and the successes of its center right neoliberal president, and wavering between chasing populist energy and uniting a splintered French left.

Jacob wrote the article Whose Populism? The Mixed Messages of La France Insoumise for Dissent.

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Jacob Hamburger

Jacob Hamburger is a writer based in Paris. He is the editor of Tocqueville 21, a bilingual blog that focuses on contemporary democracy.

 

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