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"From now on, we are going to campaign together," said Socialist
Party leader Olivier Faure.
The coalition pact, which the French Greens and Communists
approved earlier this week, will be the first time the broader
left wing of French politics has united in 20 years - but with
the eurosceptic LFI in the driving seat this time around.
Parties on both the left and right wings of France's political
spectrum are eyeing alliances to try to beat Macron's party -
which has been renamed Renaissance - in the June 12 and June 19
votes for the lower house of France's parliament.
Macron won a second presidential mandate last month, but he will
need a majority in parliament if he is to push through policies
including raising the retirement age to 65 from 62 currently,
opposed by both the left and right.
The left-wing bloc's alliance has taken shape under the
leadership of LFI's firebrand chief Jean-Luc Melenchon, who
narrowly missed out on making it to the final round of the
French presidential election run-off vote last month.
Melenchon came third with around 22% of votes in the first round
of the election, just behind far-right candidate Marine Le Pen.
The Socialists' presidential candidate, Anne Hidalgo, only
claimed around 1.7% of votes.
(Reporting by Camille Raynaud and Sudip Kar-Gupta; Editing by
Kenneth Maxwell)
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