French election 2017: Who is Jean-Luc Melenchon?
JEAN-LUC Mélenchon has become a late contender in the French presidential election, but who is he?
Jean-Luc Mélenchon speaks to crowds at Marseilles rally
Who is Jean-Luc Mélenchon?
Mr Mélenchon has surged ahead in the latest French polls and is currently just four points behind frontrunner Emmanuel Macron.
With around a third of voters thought to be undecided, Mr Mélenchon is in with a genuine chance of progressing to the final round of voting in two weeks’ time and could become France’s next president.
The 65-year-old is a former Socialist minister running under the Unsubmissive France movement, which has been endorsed by the French Communist Party and other socialist groups.
His policies are on the far-left of the political spectrum, with headline-grabbing proposals including a 100 per cent tax on earnings over £335,000 (€400,000) – effectively an earnings cap.
Mr Mélenchon would also raise public spending by £230 billion (€275bn) over the course of five years, including £83 bn (€100bn) of government borrowing.
His sweeping reforms to the French constitution would limit the powers of the president and hand more power to parliament while abolishing the Senate upper house.
Like his rival Marine Le Pen, Mr Mélenchon is against the European Union, which he calls an “open-air prison”.
As president he would attempt to rewrite EU treaties with the co-operation of the other member states. Failing that, he says, he would call a ‘Frexit’ referendum on membership of the bloc.
Critics have accused Mr Mélenchon of cosying up to Russian President Vladimir Putin on issues such as the Ukraine conflict and the annexation of Crimea.
In his eyes, the West is to blame for most of the world’s conflicts
Mr Mélenchon has adopted a staunchly anti-German stance which many have said reeks of nationalism and could sour Franco-German relations.
In his 2015 book Bismarck’s Herring (The German Poison), Mr Mélenchon wrote that “Germany is again a danger”, its “imperialism” is “returning”, and the EU is its “new empire”.
He also described Germans as “grumbling Teutons” who seek to “deport” their old people to eastern Europe or Thailand.
What is Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s background?
Born in Tangiers, Morocco, Mr Mélenchon moved to France with his father, a Spanish postmaster, and his mother, a Spanish-Sicilian schoolteacher, at the age of 11.
He was educated in Normandy and studied philosophy at the University of Franche-Comté in Besançon, where he was a Trotskyist activist.
After a short spell as a teacher, he entered politics and joined the Socialist Party.
In 1986 Mr Mélenchon became the youngest member of the French Senate aged 35.
From 2000 until 2002 he served as an Education Minister, but quit the party in 2008 after falling out with then-leader Francois Hollande.
He formed the Left Party the same year, explaining: “Our country needs another voice on the left.”
In 2012 Mr Mélenchon ran for president and finished fourth in the polls.
During his 2017 campaign he has gained a reputation for his innovative campaign methods. Last week, he appeared at a rally via hologram.