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00:00 So, little more than 24 hours after the shock announcement from France's President Emmanuel Macron
00:06 that he is calling snap elections in little over two weeks' time, France's left-wing parties coming together to fight.
00:13 The Socialists, the Greens, the Communists and the more far-left France Unbowed Party announcing they will present shared platform candidates.
00:20 Just one candidate that is then per constituency to represent all of them.
00:25 Their hope that they can really challenge Macron and also really challenge the rise of Marine Le Pen's the far-right here,
00:31 that rise that has led to this election in the first place.
00:35 This means we will be working together to put forward joint candidates in the first round of the parliamentary elections
00:45 who will defend a programme that prioritises the urgent social, ecological and democratic battles.
00:53 It's a first step and we will be continuing to work over the coming hours to ensure that we are ready in the days to come
01:01 because the battle is about to begin.
01:04 We are a country rising up today and saying no to the far-right and yes to democracy, yes to the left.
01:14 Thank you for coming out today. Keep it up.
01:21 We signed a document with seven political organisations and launched an appeal for more people to join us tomorrow.
01:28 I think there are already 15 or so political organisations that have joined this appeal this evening.
01:34 Tomorrow I hope we will reach 20 or so and that this very broad gathering will enable us to go all the way to victory.
01:43 Andrew Hillier from our International Affairs desk is joining us here on set now.
01:49 Andrew, people have been saying you've got to come together and it does seem as though the left parties are all coming together now.
01:56 Yes, Stuart, we're seeing what I would call the outlines of an agreement here between the four main parties on the left.
02:02 That's France Unbowed, the Socialist Party, the Communists and the Greens as you can see on the screen here.
02:08 Late last night they issued a joint statement in which they announced their desire to form a popular front.
02:15 What they'll do is they'll combine forces, putting forward only one candidate in each electoral district.
02:21 Of course, the aim there is to stop left-wing candidates draining votes away from each other in the same district.
02:28 They're all going to rally behind the same election manifesto.
02:32 Now, Stuart, for people like you and me who don't follow French politics quite as closely,
02:37 it's important to point out that this is not the first time that the left has come together to form an alliance.
02:42 They actually already did it two years ago during the last legislative elections under the banner of NUPEZ.
02:48 And you remember that was dominated by France Unbowed and its leader, Jean-Luc Mélenchon,
02:53 after he came third in those presidential elections in 2022, narrowly missing out on second place to Marine Le Pen.
03:01 But basically what happened over the next two years was that infighting caused that alliance to implode.
03:08 There were differences in policy and the breaking point came last October when differences emerged over Israel's war on Gaza.
03:16 You had basically the Socialist Party and the Greens openly supporting Israel's response to those attacks by Hamas last October,
03:24 whereas France Unbowed took a more nuanced view on what happened,
03:30 focusing more on Israel's repressive policies towards Palestinians as a factor driving those attacks.
03:37 France Unbowed's leader, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, was accused of echoing anti-Semitic stereotypes.
03:42 So essentially what we have here is an agreement, but getting an agreement is one thing.
03:47 Now, whether or not it sticks over the next few weeks and months is something else.
03:51 So we'll have to see what happens. Will differences re-emerge over Gaza?
03:55 What will this election manifesto look like? Those are big answers, big questions, and we need to see what the answers will be.