Jean-Luc Mélenchon Le Bourget rally presidential campaign program, Digi Mart USA News (Le Bourget, Seine-Saint-Denis, France): In this presidential campaign, the Insoumis, the supporters of France Insoumise (LFI), are currently drawing the largest crowds. Jean-Luc Mélenchon and his team plan to continue that momentum this Saturday with a major rally at the Parc des expositions du Bourget to present their platform.
Following a rally in Clermont-Ferrand last month and ahead of another event in Le Havre next month, the party is returning to the Paris region, where it is most established. As of Friday, 17,000 activists had registered for the event, with up to 20,000 people expected to attend, according to the report.
The Insoumis, who lead the left in the polls, received support during the week from most of the communist and overseas-territory group in the National Assembly, including its president, Stéphane Peu, who represents Seine-Saint-Denis. The party also hopes to soon gain the backing of the small party Génération.s, founded by Benoît Hamon, and its six deputies.
Campaign director Manuel Bompard told AFP the rally has three goals: demonstrating the strength and momentum of the campaign, highlighting the team, and presenting the program. The event follows Friday’s release of the presidential program, a new edition of “L’Avenir en commun” containing 1,069 proposals.
The movement plans to screen a short film blending fiction and reality, with segments moving between the stage and the screen, to show how “L’Avenir en commun” would change people’s lives, according to Mélenchon’s team.
The choice of venue carries symbolism. In January 2012, Socialist candidate François Hollande held a well-known rally at the same site, where he declared, “My real opponent (…) is the world of finance.” François Mitterrand also held his final first-round rally there during his 1988 re-election campaign.
Mélenchon, a former Socialist Party member for more than 30 years, still regards Mitterrand as a guiding figure. The report notes that Mélenchon is widely expected to lose to Marine Le Pen in a runoff according to all polls, and that his highly divisive profile means he must appear unifying, as Mitterrand did, to have a chance of winning.
The stage design of his last rally near Clermont-Ferrand on October 11 echoed Mitterrand’s first 1988 rally in Rennes. His new campaign poster, unveiled Friday, also recalls Mitterrand’s 1981 “La force tranquille” poster.
Mélenchon is pictured in front of a rural backdrop, the Gergovie site in Auvergne, which he particularly favors, although his movement is mainly established in large cities and their suburbs.
The poster carries the slogan “Liberté, égalité, solidarité.” Manuel Bompard explained, “Fraternity is an individual behavior, solidarity is a political project.”
