Jean-Luc Melenchon, born in 1951, is a far-left French politician, member of the National Assembly, branch of the French parliament, since 2017.
After joining the Socialist Party in 1976, he was elected municipal councilor of Massy (1983), general councilor of the department of Essonne (1985), and Senator of the same department in 1986, then re-elected in 1995 and 2004 .
Melenchon also served as Deputy Minister for Vocational Education between 2000 and 2002, under National Education Minister Jack Lang in Lionel Jospin’s government. In 2008 he left the Socialist Party and founded the Party of the Left with the deputy Marc Dolez. He was president of the party, then co-president of it together with Martine Billard, until August 2014.
As leader of the Left Party, he joined the Left Front electoral coalition before the 2009 European elections, and was elected Member of the European Parliament in the South-West constituency (re-elected in 2014). During the protest movement against the pension reform of 2010, his fame grew thanks to numerous public and television appearances.
He was also the coalition’s candidate in the 2012 presidential election, the results of which saw him come fourth with 11.1% of the vote. He founded the movement La France Insoumise (FI) in February 2016.
He was a candidate in the 2017 presidential elections - with 19.58% of the votes he qualified fourth.
