“The Rassemblement National reaching power is no longer inevitable” concludes the June 13 statement by the Nouveau Front Populaire, the left-wing alliance formed for the snap elections called by French president Emmanuel Macron. In the two-round contest this June 30 and July 7, it will confront two main rivals, namely the center-right bloc, led by Macron, and the far right. Thanks to the unity built in record time, the Left can win.

The call for early parliamentary elections, decided by Macron after Marine Le Pen’s Rassemblement National swept the European elections on June 9, has surely caused an earthquake in French politics. The unpopular president — whose candidates (on 14.5 percent) received under half the votes of Le Pen’s party (31.5 percent) in last Sunday’s vote — hoped that divisions on the Left would once again make him the only alternative to the far right. But he was wrong.

Faced with the risk of a far-right parliamentary majority and prime minister, the various left-wing and green forces reacted with unusual speed. Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s France Insoumise, the Parti Socialiste, the Greens, and the Communist Party had already run together in the 2022 parliamentary elections, obtaining second place overall and breaking Macron’s absolute majority. But since then, the Left had returned to its traditional fratricidal dynamics.