Left Party (France)

The Left Party (Parti de gauche, PG) is a French democratic socialist political party. It seeks to emulate the German political party Die Linke led by Gesine Lötzsch and Klaus Ernst.

History
It was founded in November 2008 by former Socialist Senator Jean-Luc Mélenchon and deputy Marc Dolez and others dissidents of the party together with the MARS movement (Mouvement pour une Alternative Républicaine et Sociale - Movement for a Republican and Social Alternative).

They had left the PS five days earlier, in protest of the result of the Reims Congress vote on motions, where the leftist motion they supported won only 19%.

They were joined after by other members from the left of the Socialist Party, by people who hadn't been members of a political party before and by dissidents from the Green Party following the deputy Martine Billard.

Elected officials

 * Deputies: Marc Dolez, Jacques Desallangre, Martine Billard (Gauche démocrate et républicaine Group)
 * Senators: Marie-Agnès Labarre, François Autain (Communist, Republican, Citizen, and Senators of the Left Party Group)
 * MEPs: Jean-Luc Mélenchon

Around ninety local elected officials (municipal, regional and general councillors), including two municipal councillors in Paris, have also joined the party.

Action
The party has met with trade unions such as the Confédération générale du travail (CGT), Solidaires Unitaires Démocratiques, CGT-FO, and Confédération Française des Travailleurs Chrétiens.

In the 2009 European Parliament election, the party ran as part of the Left Front with the French Communist Party and the Unitarian Left.

Popular support and electoral record
The PG has not yet ran independently in an election, so its base of support is hard to pin-point.