French presidential election: How far-left Mélenchon became a Gen Z favourite

Crowds filled the streets of Paris as part of a nationwide general strike and new protests on November 5, just five months before France’s presidential election. Far-left presidential hopeful Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s silver hair and round-framed glasses were instantly recognisable in the crowd. 

He has been pictured at several youth-driven demonstrations in recent months, sporting a wide smile, his fist raised. Mélenchon’s affinity for the young protesters appears to be mutual. The founder of the France Unbowed (La France Insoumise or LFI) party decidedly won the support of 18- to 34-year-olds in the 2022 presidential election. And recent polls suggest that in 2027 – with the youth predicted to be on his side – Mélenchon could make it to the election’s second and final round, to face off against far-right leader Marine Le Pen, who is leading the polls. 

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Youth to the forefront

Much of Mélenchon’s left-wing platform proves popular among young French voters, notably its promises to fight climate change, redistribute wealth and stage a “citizen’s revolution” to encourage public participation in government. 

“Mélenchon is the last revolutionary on the left, and this is what young people are aspiring to. They are frustrated, they have been frustrated for a long time,” said political scientist Thibault Muzergues.

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Livia Jampy, a 25-year-old co-chair of the LFI youth group and a city council member in Montpellier, said the party takes the French youth's political concerns seriously. “People will use any excuse to claim that young people who support Mélenchon are illegitimate or that we don’t understand anything [the party is] doing,” said Jampy. “We understand very well what’s going on.”

Mélenchon and his party have made a conscious effort to empower their young base. The LFI’s youth group, Jeunes Insoumis.es, tries to reach voters online and in the streets. LFI also hosts an annual "summer university" for people under the age of 26 that this year included a meeting with Mélenchon himself.

'The system has not worked for us'

But Mélenchon remains controversial among France’s broader electorate. He has taken flack for encouraging the ongoing student protest movement, which at times has been marked by violence. His political adversaries have blamed his confrontational rhetoric for the civil unrest, with French President Emmanuel Macron saying the youth are being "exploited" by political forces. Since the October 7, 2023 attacks in Israel, he has also been regularly accused of anti-Semitism.

In his previous presidential run, Mélenchon was criticised for his perceived leniency towards Russia and pledging to leave NATO if elected. 

Muzergues said young voters feel less concerned by these international issues, but are determined to see systemic reform in France. People “underestimate the radicality of this vote”, he added. “It is not a protest vote. It is a vote to say the system has not worked for us and needs to be changed. Not cosmetically, but profoundly.”