French left leader floats euro change, or exit, if elected president

With France's presidential election due next April, intense campaigning is already under way. After the left-wing New Popular Front alliance won the most seats in the 2024 parliamentary election, the left is keen to capture the presidency this time.

Jean-Luc Melenchon, seen as the alliance's hard-left leader, is considered a strong candidate. He won 21.95 percent of the vote in the 2022 presidential election and has announced he will contest the coming one.

Speaking at the close of a massive rally attended by more than 15,000 people in a northern suburb of Paris, he said that if he became president he would reduce the powers of the European Central Bank and implement France's own economic policies.

To that end the euro currency would have to change, he said, adding that if other European countries did not agree, France's withdrawal from the European Union and the Eurozone would also be considered.