Is Zack Polanski about to come over all French…?

It appears Green Party leader Zack Polanski has taken on board the lesson from the 2024 French legislative elections. Having already told the Canary that he will work with Your Party, Green officials are reportedly discussing an allocation of resources to best tackle Nigel Farage. That includes a possible deprioritisation of safe Labour seats providing that Keir Starmer is ousted as prime minister and a more progressive leadership takes hold.

The French election and Zack Polanski

“The lesson from France is clear”, Your Party’s Zarah Sultana said recently. Indeed, in July 2024, the Nouveau Front Populaire (New Popular Front) left-wing alliance won the most seats in France’s snap legislative election. It took 182 seats, defeating president Emmanuel Macron’s ‘centrist’ coalition Ensemble and far-right Rassemblement National (National Rally). Although, the New Popular Front, a coalition of left-wing leader Jean-Luc Melenchon’s La France Insoumise (Unsubmissive France), social democrats, Greens, and communists, were short of the 289 seats needed for a majority.

Still, it fended off the threat from Marine Le Pen’s National Front (Farage’s French counterpart). So, what could the lessons for Zack Polanski and the Greens be?

Is this feasible in the UK?

With the corporate capture of the Labour Party, it is questionable whether a leadership emerges that aligns itself enough with Zack Polanski’s Greens and Your Party. In 2021, after trying to overhaul the one member one vote system for leader altogether, Starmer raised the percentage of MPs that must nominate a Labour leadership candidate from 10% to 20%. This effectively prevents left-wing MPs from even reaching the ballot to become leader.

One possibility: mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham has been touted as a possible leadership challenger to Starmer. And progressive MP Clive Lewis has even offered to give up his seat so Burnham can run for the leadership, as he isn’t currently an MP.

Sultana: “electoral alliance”

Your Party’s Sultana, meanwhile, has stressed the need for alliances, but whether that includes a more progressive Labour is unclear:

I think there has to be conversations around electoral alliances. We have to look at the next election where the goal has to be to stop Nigel Farage from getting the keys to Downing Street. But fundamentally [the Greens and Your Party] are different parties: we are a socialist party. We’re a party that is going to represent the working class, that isn’t shy about talking about material issues affecting workers.

What might prove true is that the threat of Farage overrides even broad divisions between Zack Polanski’s Greens, Your Party, and a more progressive Labour.

Featured image via the Canary