Unitary Left (''Gauche unitaire'', GU) was a

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

that was originally faction (under the name ''Unir'' or Unite) within the Revolutionary Communist League. The party is led by

Christian Picquet Christian Lamothe (born 1952 in Paris), better known with his pseudonym Christian Picquet, is a French activist and politician. He is the leader of the new Unitary Left party. Picquet joined the Revolutionary Communist League (LCR) in 1968, but ...

, a former member of the Revolutionary Communist League. The creation of the party was announced on 8 March 2009 at the founding congress of the Left Front electoral coalition ahead of the 2009 European elections. Picquet, whose opposition faction represented 3.7% at the founding congress of the

New Anticapitalist Party The New Anticapitalist Party (french: Nouveau Parti anticapitaliste , abbreviated NPA) is a far-left political party in France founded in February 2009. The party launched with 9,200 members and was intended to unify the fractured movements o ...

, disagreed with the majority's refusal to ally with the

Communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

-led Left Front for the European elections. As a result, Picquet's small movement integrated the Left Front and Picquet was the third candidate on the coalition's list in the

Île-de-France , timezone1 = CET , utc_offset1 = +01:00 , timezone1_DST = CEST , utc_offset1_DST = +02:00 , blank_name_sec1 = Gross regional product , blank_info_sec1 = Ranked 1st , bla ...

constituency. Ideologically, the party sought to unite all democratic socialists opposed to

neo-liberalism Neoliberalism (also neo-liberalism) is a term used to signify the late 20th century political reappearance of 19th-century ideas associated with free-market capitalism after it fell into decline following the Second World War. A prominent fa ...

under a common front. The GU was part of the Left Front until 2014. On 8 September 2015, the GU decided to merge into the

French Communist Party The French Communist Party (french: Parti communiste français, ''PCF'' ; ) is a political party in France which advocates the principles of communism. The PCF is a member of the Party of the European Left, and its MEPs sit in the European Unit ...

. This decision was taken to limit the division of the left.

References

External links

Official website
{{Authority control 2009 establishments in France 2015 disestablishments in France Defunct political parties in France Defunct socialist parties in Europe Democratic socialist parties in Europe Far-left politics in France History of the French Communist Party Party of the European Left former member parties Political parties disestablished in 2015 Political parties established in 2009 Political parties of the French Fifth Republic Socialist parties in France