Rising in the polls, the French election’s dark horse Jean-Luc Mélenchon has promised a reboot of the French Republic, vowing to overhaul a presidential regime that he blames for mounting abstention, disillusion and increasingly violent protests.
Sporting a prominent French moustache and the Phrygian cap of the revolutionary Sans-culottes, Johan Pain cut a familiar figure on place de la République in Paris – the French capital’s traditional protest hub
The sprawling square, best known for its towering allegorical statue of the French Republic (coiffed, of course, with a Phrygian cap), has long been a rite of passage for every left-wing march in town. On Sunday, it was the stage for the biggest rally of France’s presidential campaign, in support of veteran campaigner Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who is polling in third with just three weeks to go before the April 10 vote.
Basking in the warm sunshine, tens of thousands of flag-waving supporters flocked to hear Mélenchon promise a reboot of the Republic. Few had travelled as far as Pain, who made the 500-kilometre trip from Lausanne in Switzerland to back the leftist firebrand.
“The Fifth Republic has failed us, it’s a broken system,” Pain, 72, said of the presidential regime instituted by General Charles de Gaulle, France’s wartime hero, more than 60 years ago. “I’ve realised this much from living abroad: when it comes to democracy in Europe, we’re bottom of the league.”
Sunday’s “March for the Sixth Republic” marked the third such rally since Mélenchon first ran for the presidency a decade ago. It was a chance for the hard-left candidate to flex his muscles as he continues his slow but steady rise in the polls, five years after he narrowly missed out on a place in the all-important presidential run-off.
Source : france24
