Jean-Luc Melenchon lashed out on Sunday at activists attending a National Rally congress in Orleans after the crowd booed his name during the weekend event.
The candidate for the left-wing party La France Insoumise in the 2027 French presidential election described those present at the gathering in the Loiret department as a crowd bewildered and dulled by hatred. He said he thanked the attendees for booing his name and for insulting what he called the new France.
Melenchon accused the activists of applauding any banality on the same level as the most stupid street-brawl slogans. Adopting deliberately divisive language, he promised them that the future of the country would be built despite them and declared that the 2027 vote would be a choice of life against the death of the spirit and of fraternity.
Marine Le Pen campaign launch in Orleans
The exchange followed a major rally in Orleans, the prefecture of the Loiret department, where Marine Le Pen formally launched her 2027 presidential campaign for the far-right National Rally, known in France as the Rassemblement National.
Several thousand party activists attended the weekend congress, with crowd estimates ranging between 8,500 and 10,000 people depending on the sources.
Le Pen focused her address on restoring authority, security and national sovereignty. She delivered the speech against a political backdrop marked by the violence of 17 October.
Orleans, the host city for the weekend congress, is the capital of the Centre-Val de Loire region and sits on the Loire River about 120 kilometres southwest of Paris.
Rival candidates in the 2027 French presidential election
Melenchon and Le Pen are two of the most prominent figures in French politics and have been long-standing ideological opponents across multiple national campaigns. Melenchon, a veteran left-wing politician who previously served as a government minister, senator, Member of the European Parliament and National Assembly deputy, founded La France Insoumise in 2016.
He previously stood as a candidate in the 2012, 2017 and 2022 presidential elections, finishing third in the first-round ballot in 2022 behind Emmanuel Macron and Le Pen.
Le Pen has been the leading figure of the French far right for more than a decade, overseeing the rebranding of the former National Front into the National Rally in 2018. Like Melenchon, she contested the 2012, 2017 and 2022 presidential elections, reaching the second-round run-off against Macron in both 2017 and 2022.
Under the constitution of the French Fifth Republic, the head of state is elected by direct universal suffrage for a five-year term through a two-round voting system. If no candidate wins an absolute majority of votes cast in the first round, the top two contenders advance to a decisive second-round ballot held two weeks later.
