Forum Post: french election a revolution?

"We're back--the France of revolution!" he told a crowd of several thousand in the central French town of Vierzon. "If Europe is a volcano, then France is the revolutionary crater."

Mélenchon's campaign platform marks a break from the Socialist Party's typical pro-business rhetoric. He calls for a 20 percent increase in minimum wage, a ban on layoffs by profitable companies, a heavy tax on financial transactions, and annual limits on incomes to $472,000, with anything over that amount going to taxation.

However, notwithstanding Mélenchon's break with the Socialists, he's still prepared to make an electoral deal with them. A Mélenchon campaign staffer announced on April 6that the candidate would support "the left-wing candidate who's in front" after the first round of voting--essentially, offering an advance endorsement of Hollande, who is ahead in the polls over conservative incumbent President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Because Hollande will need the support of Mélenchon voters in the expected second-round run-off vote against Sarkozy on May 6, Hollande has been compelled to ratchet up his own left-wing rhetoric, pledging to raise the top tax rate to 75 percent on the wealthiest people in France. "The world of finance is my adversary," Hollande declared.