Jean-Luc Mélenchon

Jean-Luc Mélenchon (; born 19 August 1951) is a French politician. He was a member of the National Assembly of the French Republic. He ran for President of France twice: he finished in fourth place in 2012 and 2017, then in 2022, he came in third. 

Political career
In 1976, he was elected municipal councilor of Massy (1983), general councilor of the Essonne departement (1985), and senator of the same department (1986, reelected in 1995 and 2004). He also served as Minister-Delegate of Vocational Education between 2000 and 2002, under the Minister of National Education, Jack Lang, in the cohabitation government of Lionel Jospin.

As leader of the Left Party, he joined the electoral coalition of the Left Front before the 2009 European elections and was elected member of the European Parliament in the South-West constituency (reelected in 2014).

Presidential politics
During the protest movement against the pension reform of 2010 his public stature grew thanks to his many public and television appearances. He was also the candidate of that coalition in the 2012 presidential election, at the outcome of which he came in fourth, receiving 11.1% of the votes. He was a candidate in the 2017 presidential election "outside the frame of political parties", and founded the movement "Unsubmissive France" (FI) in February 2016.Statement by Jean‑Luc Mélenchon made after he left the Socialist Party  Speech by Jean-Luc Mélenchon at the creation congress of the Left Party   He came in fourth place winning 19.5% of the vote.

He ran for the presidency again for the 2022 election, coming in third place winning 21.95% of the vote.

References

Other websites


 Page on the French Senate website
 MEP webpage 

Category:1951 births
Category:Living people
Category:Government ministers of France
Category:MEPs for France
Category:Socialist Party (France) politicians