Ahead of the European elections due to be held on May 26, French politics looks sharply divided. On the one hand, most media tell us, is the slick liberal president Emmanuel Macron, with his bid to breathe new life into the beleaguered European Union. On the other is Marine Le Pen’s Rassemblement National (ex–Front National), with its hard line against immigration and so-called “populist” rhetoric against Brussels.

But as the ongoing gilets jaunes protests have shown, this is not the only divide shaping these elections. For six months Macron allies have sought to portray the gilets jaunes as reactionary Le Pen voters riven by antisemitism and homophobia. Yet far from this caricature, most gilets jaunes are just working-class people fed up at not being able to pay their bills, arguing that they shouldn’t have to shoulder all the costs of the ecological transition.

Today, this argument is key to the European election campaign being waged by La France Insoumise (LFI). Since its leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s 2017 presidential bid, scoring 20 percent of the vote, it has stressed the importance of green jobs and putting an end to neoliberal EU treaties which impose breakneck deregulation. For LFI, social and climate justice aren’t opposites: they’re about taking on the same neoliberal elites.