Now the People!

Now the People! is a political movement in the European Union. It was founded in April 2018 by a declaration from Catarina Martins from the Portuguese party Bloco de Esquerda, Pablo Iglesias from the Spanish party Podemos, and Jean-Luc Mélenchon, leader of La France Insoumise main French socialist party. After discussions about the austerity policy of the Greek government under Alexis Tsipras and his Syriza party, the leaders of the leftist La France insoumise departed the Party of the European Left, joined by Iglesias and Podemos as well as Martins and Bloco. In June 2018, the Danish Red–Green Alliance, Finnish Left Alliance and the Swedish Left Party co-operated with the French Maintenant le Peuple ! (MLP). The Portuguese, Finnish and Danish parties are members of both Now the People and Party of the European Left. Potere al Popolo, a coalition of several small left-wing parties and organisations in Italy, also "lent its support" to MLP, calling it "a very important call proposed by three of the most popular alternatives from Europe [Left Bloc, Podemos and La France Insoumise], which we cannot ignore." However, as Potere al Popolo did not participate in the 2019 European Parliament election, and as it had no incumbent MEPs in the eighth European Parliament, it is not a full member of MLP. In the European elections, parties associated with MLP won a total of 14 seats. La France Insoumise won six seats, the most out of MLP's constituent parties.