Mr. M茅lenchon is a rising populist on the far left whose support (13 percent and rising) in recent polls has surprised politicos. He is a Free Mason born in Morocco in 1951, a former Trotskyite who defended Chairman Mao鈥檚 Cultural Revolution in China a few years ago and has sided with Beijing on its opposition to the Dalai Lama and Tibetan independence.
M茅lenchon cuts a dashing figure in Paris: A good debater and a lively, intellectual 鈥渕an of the people鈥� who rides the subway and has no driver鈥檚 license. He is constantly on television bashing the French elite and the media itself. Like Socialist Francois Hollande, he鈥檚 a veteran of the epochal 1968 student movement in Paris. A former journalist and former vocational education minister, M茅lenchon left the Socialist party after 34 years to form his Left Party.
In 2009, he was elected to the European Parliament. He is endorsed by the communists, who don鈥檛 have a presidential candidate, but has also shown broader appeal than the far left. He has promised to cap all salaries at $500,000, among many other proposals. M茅lenchon's rally in Paris two weeks ago was 70,000 to 80,000 strong 鈥� larger than Sarkozy's.
