Philippe Poutou

Last updated

Philippe Poutou
Philippe Poutou - Gilets jaunes (2019).jpg
Poutou in 2019
Born14 March 1967 (1967-03-14) (age 57)
Villemomble, Île-de-France, France
NationalityFrench
Occupation(s)Trade unionist, car factory worker, politician
Known forFrench presidential candidate (2012, 2017, 2022)
Political party New Anticapitalist Party (2009–present)
Other political
affiliations		 Lutte Ouvrière (1985–1997)
Voix des Travailleurs  [ fr ] (1997–2000)
Revolutionary Communist League (2000–2009)

Philippe Poutou (French pronunciation: [filipputu] ; born 14 March 1967) [1] is a French far-left [ citation needed ] politician, former trade unionist and car factory worker. He was the New Anticapitalist Party's candidate in the presidential elections of 2012, 2017 and 2022, in which he respectively received 1.15%, 1.09% and 0.76% of the vote.

Contents

Trade union activity

Poutou was secretary of the General Confederation of Labour at the Ford Motor Company in the Aquitaine region of France. He was a car industry worker until his factory closed in 2019. [2] In 2007, he played a leading role in union negotiations with the company over the potential axing of 2,000 jobs; he was a union spokesman to the media. [3] [4]

Early political activity

Poutou was a candidate for the Revolutionary Communist League in the 2007 legislative election. He stood in the 5th constituency of Gironde, where he gathered 1,582 votes (2.7%) and placed eighth, as the party failed to win a seat in the National Assembly. He then led its successor party, the New Anticapitalist Party, in the 2010 regional election in his home region of Aquitaine. He failed to be elected a regional councillor as the list he led obtained 2.5% of the vote. [3] [4] Poutou stood again in the 2012 legislative election in which he gathered 1,264 votes (2.12%) and placed eighth a second time. In the 2014 European Parliament election, he led the New Anticapitalist Party list in South-West France but failed to be elected an MEP.

Election campaigns

2012 campaign for president

Poutou campaigning for the presidency in March 2012 in Toulouse Meeting NPA - Toulouse - 2012-04-17 - 21h53.jpg
Poutou campaigning for the presidency in March 2012 in Toulouse

In June 2011, he was chosen by the New Anticapitalist Party as its candidate for the 2012 presidential election. Media noted that he was virtually unknown to the public, as well as that he might find it difficult to succeed previous candidate Olivier Besancenot, a well recognised figure popular beyond the party itself. He would, in addition, have to contend with divisions within the party over whether to engage more with the Left Front, with an aim to unify the political forces on the left of the centre-left Socialist Party. [3] [4]

For much of the campaign, he remained little known to the general public; he was described as lacking Besancenot's popularity, charisma and ease with words. Freely admitting that he did not particularly want to be a candidate and that he did not aim to be elected, particularly as one of his policies was to abolish the presidency, in favour of a fully parliamentary system, he saw his profile and popularity increase somewhat in the late stages of the campaign, when all candidates confirmed by the Constitutional Council obtained equal airtime in the media as required by law. In particular, his unconventional behaviour drew attention during the television programme Des paroles et des actes hosted by David Pujadas on France 2, along with his unusual campaign clips – such as one based on the film The Artist , or another parodying the gameshow Questions pour un champion and playing on the fact that Poutou remained little-known to the public.

Like Trotskyist candidate Nathalie Arthaud of Lutte Ouvrière, his message was that improvements in workers' rights would come through workers' struggles and demands rather than through the ballot box. [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] Obtaining 1.15% of the vote, finishing eighth out of ten, Poutou called upon voters to "vote against Sarkozy" in the second round. The press partly explained his low result by the fact that Jean-Luc Mélenchon, of the Left Front, had attracted the bulk of voters on the "left of the left". [11] [12] Poutou explained that, while he hoped Hollande would win rather than Sarkozy, the New Anticapitalist Party would have to help build an "opposition on the left" to the new government. [13] [14]

2017 campaign for president

On 20 March 2016, Poutou was nominated by the New Anticapitalist Party as its candidate in the 2017 presidential election. In a televised debate on 4 April 2017, he denounced "corrupt politicians" and advocated for lower salaries for elected officials. His remarks earned him the applause of fellow candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon of La France Insoumise. Poutou attacked François Fillon and Marine Le Pen, the first of which warned he could sue for the corruption claims that were made. [15] Furthermore, Poutou addressed the moderators stating "it's not because I don't have a tie that you have to interrupt me". For several media observers, Poutou was the most prominent debate partaker. [16] [17] [18] In the election, he received 1.09% of the vote and placed eighth out of eleven, as Mélenchon, the best-placed left-wing candidate in fourth place, had gathered over 3 million additional votes compared to 2012.

2022 campaign for president

Poutou speaking in Audincourt in February 2022 2022-02-23 20-30-22 meeting-Poutou-Audincourt.jpg
Poutou speaking in Audincourt in February 2022

Poutou supported and took part in the yellow vests movement that started in 2018, within the larger protests against Emmanuel Macron, stating it was "the expression of a fed up with a society that is deeply unjust". [19] On 28 June 2020, he took office as a municipal councillor and metropolitan councillor of Bordeaux, following the 2020 municipal election, in which he campaigned most notably for free public transportation. Previous attempts to win a seat in the municipal council as lead candidate in 2001 and 2014 were unsuccessful.

Despite initial statements he would not run in 2022, Poutou was invested a third time by his party ahead of the 2022 presidential election. He stated he had "many things to say" to incumbent President Emmanuel Macron. [20]

In the first round of the 2022 presidential election, Poutou received 268,904 votes, 0.76% of the total vote. Ahead of the 2022 legislative election, Poutou announced his party would not take part in the New People's Ecologist and Social Union (NUPES) headed by Mélenchon. [21] He was notably critical of the Socialist Party's weight in the alliance.

2024 campaign for the National Assembly

Ahead of the snap 2024 legislative election, the NPA came to agreement with La France Insoumise, the Socialist Party, and other left-wing and ecologist forces to create a joint list for the election, called the New Popular Front (NFP). Poutou himself was invested as the NFP's candidate in Aude's 1st constituency. [22] He would reach the second round, but be defeated by RN incumbent Christophe Barthès. [23]

Related Research Articles

The Revolutionary Communist League was a Trotskyist political party in France. It was the French section of the Fourth International (Post-Reunification). It published the weekly newspaper Rouge and the journal Critique communiste. Established in 1974, it became the leading party of the far-left in the 2000s. It officially abolished itself on 5 February 2009 to merge with smaller factions of the far-left and form a New Anticapitalist Party.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alain Krivine</span> French politician (1941–2022)

Alain Krivine was a French Trotskyist leader.

French presidential debates, broadcast on TV, traditionally occurred only between the two rounds of the presidential elections.
In 2017, for the first time, a presidential debate took place prior to the first round.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New Anticapitalist Party</span> Far-left political party in France

The New Anticapitalist Party is a far-left political party in France founded in February 2009. The party launched with 9,200 members and was intended to unify the fractured movements of the French radical Left, and attract new activists drawing on the combined strength of far-left parties in the 2002 presidential elections, where they achieved 10.44% of the vote and 7% in 2007.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Olivier Besancenot</span> French politician

Olivier Christophe Besancenot is a French left-wing political figure and trade unionist, and the founding main spokesperson of the New Anticapitalist Party from 2009 to 2011.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jean-Luc Mélenchon</span> French politician (born 1951)

Jean-Luc Mélenchon is a French politician who was a member of the National Assembly for Bouches-du-Rhône's 4th constituency from 2017 to 2022. He led the La France Insoumise group in the National Assembly from 2017 to 2021. Mélenchon was elected as a member of the European Parliament (MEP) in 2009 and reelected in 2014. He has run for president of France three times. In 2022, he came within 1.2 percentage points of reaching the second round in France's two-round voting system.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2012 French presidential election</span>

Presidential elections were held in France on 22 April 2012, with a second round run-off held on 6 May to elect the President of France. The incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy was running for a second five-year term for which he was eligible for under the Constitution of France.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Left Front (France)</span> French electoral alliance and political movement

The Left Front was a French electoral alliance and a political movement created for the 2009 European elections by the French Communist Party and the Left Party when a left-wing minority faction decided to leave the Socialist Party, and the Unitary Left, a group which left the New Anticapitalist Party. The alliance was subsequently extended for the 2010 regional elections and the 2012 presidential election and the subsequent parliamentary election.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pas-de-Calais's 11th constituency</span> Constituency of the National Assembly of France

The 11th constituency of the Pas-de-Calais is a French legislative constituency in the Pas-de-Calais département. It elects one député to the National Assembly. It has been represented by Marine Le Pen since 2017.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2017 French presidential election</span>

Presidential elections were held in France on 23 April and 7 May 2017. As no candidate won a majority in the first round, a runoff was held between the top two candidates, Emmanuel Macron of En Marche! (EM) and Marine Le Pen of the National Front (FN), which Macron won with a difference of more than 30% of the vote. The presidential election was followed by a legislative election to elect members of the National Assembly on 11 and 18 June. Incumbent president François Hollande of the Socialist Party (PS) was eligible to run for a second term, but declared on 1 December 2016 that he would not seek reelection in light of low approval ratings, making him the first incumbent head of state of the Fifth Republic not to seek reelection.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nathalie Arthaud</span> French politician

Nathalie Yvonne Thérèse Arthaud is a French secondary school (lycée) economics teacher and politician. Since 2008, she has served as the spokesperson for the Lutte Ouvrière, a communist party, and has stood for election under the party multiple times, beginning in 2001.

Anticapitalist Left was a French organisation (2011–2015), member of the Left Front from 2012 to its dissolution in 2015.

This page lists public opinion polls conducted for the 2022 French presidential election the first round of which was held on 10 April 2022. Since no candidate won a majority of the vote in the first round, the second round election was held between the top two candidates on 24 April 2022.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2017 French legislative election</span>

Legislative elections were held in France on 11 and 18 June 2017 to elect the 577 members of the 15th National Assembly of the Fifth Republic. They followed the two-round presidential election won by Emmanuel Macron. The centrist party he founded in 2016, La République En Marche! (LREM), led an alliance with the centrist Democratic Movement (MoDem); together, the two parties won 350 of the 577 seats—a substantial majority—in the National Assembly, including an outright majority of 308 seats for LREM. The Socialist Party (PS) was reduced to 30 seats and the Republicans (LR) reduced to 112 seats, and both parties' allies also suffered from a marked drop in support; these were the lowest-ever scores for the centre-left and centre-right in the legislative elections. The movement founded by Jean-Luc Mélenchon, la France Insoumise (FI), secured 17 seats, enough for a group in the National Assembly. Among other major parties, the French Communist Party (PCF) secured ten and the National Front (FN) obtained eight seats. Both rounds of the legislative election were marked by record low turnout.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2017 French Socialist Party presidential primary</span>

The French Socialist Party held a two-round presidential primary to select a candidate for the 2017 presidential election on 22 and 29 January 2017. It was the second open primary held by the center-left coalition, after the primary in 2011 in which François Hollande defeated Martine Aubry to become the Socialist nominee. Hollande went on to defeat incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy in the 2012 presidential election. However, because of his low approval rating, he announced that he would not seek re-election, becoming the first president of the Fifth Republic to decide not to run for a second term. The primary was contested by seven candidates, four from the Socialist Party and three representing other parties part of the left-wing electoral alliance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">La France Insoumise</span> French political party

La France Insoumise is a left-wing political party in France. It was launched in 2016 by Jean-Luc Mélenchon, then a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) and former co-president of the Left Party (PG). It aims to implement the eco-socialist and democratic socialist programme L'Avenir en commun. The party utilises the lower case Greek letter phi as its logotype.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2022 French presidential election</span>

Presidential elections were held in France on 10 and 24 April 2022. As no candidate won a majority in the first round, a runoff was held, in which Emmanuel Macron defeated Marine Le Pen and was re-elected as President of France. Macron, from La République En Marche! (LREM), had defeated Le Pen, leader of the National Rally, once already in the 2017 French presidential election, for the term which expired on 13 May 2022. Macron became the first president of France to win a re-election bid since Jacques Chirac won in 2002.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2022 French legislative election</span>

Legislative elections were held in France on 12 and 19 June 2022 to elect the 577 members of the 16th National Assembly of the Fifth Republic. The elections took place following the 2022 French presidential election, which was held in April 2022. They have been described as the most indecisive legislative elections since the establishment of the five-year presidential term in 2000 and subsequent change of the electoral calendar in 2002. The governing Ensemble coalition remained the largest bloc in the National Assembly but substantially lost its ruling majority, resulting in the formation of France's first minority government since 1993; for the first time since 1997, the incumbent president of France did not have an absolute majority in Parliament. As no alliance won a majority, it resulted in a hung parliament for the first time since 1988.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New Ecological and Social People's Union</span> Political coalition in France

The New Ecological and Social People's Union was a left-wing electoral alliance of political parties in France. Formed on May Day 2022, the alliance included La France Insoumise (LFI), the Socialist Party (PS), the French Communist Party (PCF), The Ecologists (LE), Ensemble! (E!), and Génération.s (G.s), and their respective smaller partners. It was the first wide left-wing political alliance since the Plural Left in the 1997 French legislative election. Over 70 dissident candidates who refused the accord still ran.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2024 French legislative election</span>

Legislative elections were held in France on 30 June and 7 July 2024 to elect all 577 members of the 17th National Assembly of the Fifth French Republic. The election followed the dissolution of the National Assembly by President Emmanuel Macron, triggering a snap election after the National Rally (RN) made substantial gains and Macron's Besoin d'Europe electoral list lost a significant number of seats in the 2024 European Parliament election in France.

References

  1. ↑ "Programme de Philippe Poutou candidat à l'élection présidentielle 2017". Le Monde. Retrieved 6 April 2017.
  2. ↑ "Philippe Poutou, officiellement licencié de l'usine Ford", RTL (in French), 31 January 2020.
  3. 1 2 3 "Le NPA se choisit un candidat pour 2012 mais ne s'épargne pas les doutes", Le Monde (in French), 26 June 2011.
  4. 1 2 3 "2012 : le NPA mise sur l'ouvrier Philippe Poutou", Le Parisien (in French), 25 June 2011.
  5. ↑ "Retour sur la campagne : la sélection du service politique du "Monde"", Le Monde (in French), 21 April 2012.
  6. ↑ "Et Philippe Poutou creva soudain l'écran...", Le Monde (in French), 12 April 2012.
  7. ↑ "Philippe Poutou est... "The Anticapitaliste"", La Dépêche (in French), 20 April 2012.
  8. ↑ "Clip officiel: The Anticapitalist" Archived 2012-04-23 at the Wayback Machine , official campaign website, 18 April 2012.
  9. ↑ "Clip officiel : Questions pour une élection" Archived 2012-04-18 at the Wayback Machine , official campaign website, 11 April 2012.
  10. ↑ "Poutou s'est fait un nom", Le Figaro (in French), 23 April 2012.
  11. ↑ " Petit score pour Poutou et Arthaud, phagocytés par Mélenchon", Agence France Presse (in French), 23 April 2012.
  12. ↑ "Au QG de Philippe Poutou : "Il s'est vraiment révélé !"", Le Nouvel Observateur (in French), 22 April 2012.
  13. ↑ "Poutou perd en voix mais gagne en popularité" Archived 2016-11-21 at the Wayback Machine , Le Journal du Dimanche (in French), 23 April 2012.
  14. ↑ "Poutou vote à Bordeaux, évoque une "opposition de gauche" à construire", Le Point (in French), 22 April 2012.
  15. ↑ "«Grand débat» de la présidentielle : la charge de Poutou contre Fillon et Le Pen", Le Parisien (in French), 5 April 2017.
  16. ↑ "Débat des onze candidats : comment Poutou a marqué les esprits", Europe 1 (in French), 5 April 2017.
  17. ↑ "Comment Poutou s'est démarqué lors du débat en dénonçant les affaires", BFM TV (in French), 5 April 2017.
  18. ↑ "Présidentielle : les dix fois où Philippe Poutou s'est fait remarquer pendant "Le Grand Débat", francetvinfo (in French), 5 April 2017.
  19. ↑ "Mélenchon, Besancenot, Poutou... Ces politiques qui défilent aux côtés des « gilets jaunes » à Paris", CNews (in French), 23 March 2019.
  20. ↑ "Présidentielle: Philippe Poutou a «plein de choses à dire» à Emmanuel Macron", Libération (in French), 9 February 2022.
  21. ↑ "Législatives : Philippe Poutou s’écarte de l’union à gauche et dézingue le PS", Marianne (in French), 6 May 2022.
  22. ↑ "Législatives 2024 : élu au conseil municipal de Bordeaux, Philippe Poutou candidat dans l'Aude". Sudouest.fr. 14 June 2024. Retrieved 16 July 2024.
  23. ↑ "1ère circonscription (1101) - Elections Législatives 2024 - Publication des résultats des élections en France". www.resultats-elections.interieur.gouv.fr. Retrieved 16 July 2024.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.