Jordan Bardella, president of the French National Rally (RN) party, has issued a direct appeal to France’s centre-left to impose a “cordon sanitaire” on the left-wing La France Insoumise (LFI) and reject all electoral alliances with it.
Bardella accused the LFI of fuelling a “climate of violence” in the country and said forming electoral pacts with it would be “the mark of dishonour”.
On February 28, addressing several thousand supporters at a rally in Perpignan, the largest city governed by the RN, Bardella framed the call as a response to attacks he attributes to LFI leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon and his allies.
The event, held to support outgoing mayor Louis Aliot in the 2026 municipal elections, took place one day before Mélenchon was due to address a rival “anti-fascist riposte” gathering in the same southern city in support of LFI-backed candidate Michaël Idrac and an allied ecologist list.
In his speech, Bardella declared: “I call on the so-called moderate left, if it still exists in our country, to break definitively with LFI, to refuse any second-round alliance which would be for them and for the entire political class the mark of dishonour.”
He linked his appeal explicitly to the death of 23-year-old right-wing activist Quentin Deranque, who was fatally injured during a demonstration in Lyon on February 13 and died the following day after being beaten up by a group of men.
Eleven people, including individuals connected to LFI circles and the anti-fascist group Jeune Garde, have been questioned over the assault.
Bardella stated: “This tragedy is the result of a climate of violence methodically constructed and installed in the country by Mr Mélenchon and his friends.”
He added: “When one insults our police and gendarmes day after day, when one threatens to pick the pockets of the rich, one justifies violence ideologically and morally.
“Mr Mélenchon, when you assert that you will not disown your friends and comrades of the Jeune Garde, despite the murder committed by presumed members of that group, when your deputies praise the terrorist movement Hamas, when you insult our police and gendarmes, when you call for insurrection, you are not the Republic: You are its shame,” he said.
The remarks build on earlier statements by Bardella, who shortly after Deranque’s death called for a “real cordon sanitaire” to keep LFI out of institutions, including the National Assembly and forthcoming local elections.
That reversal of the traditional “republican front”, historically used to isolate the RN, has already gained traction among some centre-left figures.
Centre-left MEP Raphaël Glucksmann has ruled out alliances with LFI, calling the idea “unthinkable”, while former president François Hollande of the Socialist Party (PS) has similarly distanced the PS from any municipal pacts with the party.
Perpignan has become a symbolic battleground. The city serves as a showcase for RN local governance under Mayor Louis Aliot, while LFI and its ecologist partners are mounting a challenge.
With the first round of the 2026 municipal elections only two weeks away, the weekend’s duelling rallies have national resonance, prefiguring a potential RN-LFI confrontation in the 2027 presidential race.
Reports from multiple outlets confirm attendance at Bardella’s meeting at between 3,000 and 3,500 people. The speech formed part of the RN’s broader strategy of “dédiabolisation” (demonisation) while seeking to isolate its main rival on the Left.
LFI has denounced the accusations as an attempt by the Right to shift the terms of political exclusion.
COMMENT: France’s current political leadership has allowed a culture of intimidation to take root against the French population that wants to defend its heritage, its culture and its way of life, writes @KMZiccarelli. https://t.co/sA0pH7DKPI
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) February 20, 2026
