Leftist Jean-Luc Mélenchon said his party’s third-place candidates would withdraw from three-way runoffs to help prevent the far-right from seizing power.
Ok so if they seem to be third place in whatever area they’ll leave so as to avoid vote splitting allowing a party with less than half the votes to get a full seat of power. The centrists have been a little more vague(on brand) but seem to get the idea and might do the same.
If it actually works then the country would likely be left with a center or left minority government and enough total seats under control of center and/or left that a coalition could keep the fascists from doing too much damage.
As a fan of minority governments that can’t just bulldoze stuff I’m down, but it’s a dangerous game. Centrists aren’t known for follow-through on tough choices.
The thing with Mélenchon is that he’s real flaky on Ukraine to the point of plausibly supporting Putin in his invasion. He has weird positions, he doesn’t support Putin’s domestic policy, yet he supports the annexation, but not the war.
I wonder if Macron stepping back when Mélenchon inches ahead will mean France will basically pull out of supporting Ukraine altogether.