Two unthinkable alliances were sealed this Saturday (7). The Brazilian left joined in Lula’s candidacy, paving the way for a broad coalition of the PSOL and what remains of the traditional PSDB. The French celebrated the creation of Nupes, the New Ecological and Social Popular Union, an opposition bloc that brings together Unsubmissive France, communists, socialists and ecologists.
The event overshadowed the inauguration of a new presidential term by centrist Emmanuel Macron, which took place on the same day. According to early polls, the united left could perhaps force the re-elected president to appoint a prime minister from his group after the June legislatures.
Although divergent in scope and ambition, the two movements bear similarities. They had as guarantors their charismatic leaders, Lula and Jean-Luc Mélenchon, and were driven by the radicalization of the right.
The theme of national sovereignty permeated the speeches of its leaders, as well as the imperative to rescue voters disenchanted with politics. But they differ on one crucial point, which says a lot about how parties continue to organize—or disorganize—our democracies.
The PT’s central role in the new Brazilian alliance is surprising. After becoming the main target of the anti-political wave that emerged after the 2013 protests, its end was announced hundreds of times. Different generations of professionals and political adventurers have staked their careers on conquering their estate.
The Lula phenomenon alone does not explain its resilience. On the one hand, the health crisis conferred new legitimacy on the welfare state, strongly associated with traditional center-left formations. On the other hand, faced with the PSDB’s bankruptcy, the PT assumed the role of a “big tent” that shelters all democratic currents. For the construction of the new alliance, the survival of the PT was as important as the return of the former president.
The union of the French left is articulated on top of the ruins of the Socialist Party, corroded by the dissent in its right and left wings. After years of militancy, former minister Emmanuel Macron created his own centrist movement in the throes of the François Hollande government.
A socialist senator since 1986, Mélenchon seceded in 2008 and began to overtake his former party on the left. Following Anne Hidalgo’s poor performance in the 2022 election, which put the socialists into liquidation, he finally found himself in a position to impose capitulation on his rivals on central issues such as the relationship with the European Union and the institution of a new republic.
With Nupes, the French left completes a process of rupture that began in 2012 with Mélenchon’s first presidential candidacy. She has a chance to avoid the chaotic fate of her Italian counterpart, who never recovered from the premature demise of the Communist Party after the end of the Cold War.
In Brazil, we are witnessing the opposite movement. The Lula-Alckmin ticket ends a decade marked by attempts to reinvent national politics outside the PT. 2022 may go down in history as the year 2013 finally ended.
