La Ciotat (AFP) – If the French had to choose between "the extreme right" of Marine Le Pen and "the radical left", "we would have both for the long term", warned Édouard Philippe on Saturday, who attacked the "communitarian vision" and "the administered economy" of Jean-Luc Mélenchon.

Published on: 07/11/2026 - 1:04 p.m.

“Today, the presidential election is a progressive polarization” between “the candidate of the extreme right and the candidates of the radical left”, where “everyone who is perceived as being in the middle is required to have to choose between order and chaos”, explained the Horizons candidate during a public meeting in La Ciotat (Bouches-du-Rhône).

But “a France in which we would have to choose between the extreme right and the radical left is a France in which we would have both and in the long term,” he warned.

In this RN-LFI “opposition”, Édouard Philippe explained that he saw “many points in common”, notably “a detestation of European construction” and the desire to “leave NATO”.

The former Prime Minister then attacked Mr. Mélenchon, who presents his program on Saturday. “I don’t know if I want a new France” because “I believe deeply in republican universalism”, he said, accusing the rebellious candidate of holding “positions which are based on a communitarian vision of things”.

“I was criticized a lot recently because I spoke about French people with immigrant backgrounds” (regarding the thugs who acted on the sidelines of the October 17 demonstrations, Editor’s note). But "they are French" and "we all have (...) the same rights and the same duties, whatever our origins, the color of our skin, the religion that we wish to embrace or that we do not wish to embrace", he defended.

“They tell me: you talk about French people with immigrant backgrounds, that means you are racist.” But "who, in the public debate, reintroduced or introduced the concept (...) of racialized? It's not me, it's not the right and the center, it's the extreme left", he said.

“Where is republican universalism? Who has played for several months, several years on words, on concepts, on things which in our political history, when we know it, when we know the political vocabulary, are fundamentally anti-Semitism,” insisted Mr. Philippe.

The Horizons candidate also judged that Mr. Mélenchon was part of the perspective of an “administered economy”. “We see the idea: your children recover the debt and the State recovers the inheritance. Your children recover the debt and the State recovers your house.”

© 2026 AFP

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