Asked at a press conference about the probing dynamics that give him in certain surveys just behind Marine Le Pen but ahead of Eric Zemmour and Valérie Pécresse, the tribune replied: "It gives the prospect of a huge event".

"If the second round is Macron - Mélenchon, that's where clear-cut questions arise," he said.

While "if there is a far-right candidate opposite (the outgoing president), he is not going to get him on pensions or school, because they are in agreement".

A duel between the Insoumis and Mr. Macron, who is leading the polls, would be "more honourable, more classic with the left against the right", added Mr. Mélenchon.

"Another second round is possible", he chanted in reference to the slogan of his new poster, "Another world is possible".

This can have "an impact on people on the desperate left and in working-class neighborhoods, to say that they can ensure that Mélenchon is in the second round".

"If you don't put me there, retirement at 60, price freezes and the minimum wage at 1,400 euros" will not be in the debate, insisted the deputy from Bouches-du-Rhône.

He confided: "There is a lot of joy, happiness in our team, we went to get our position with our teeth, we have been in the campaign for 16 months".

But Jean-Luc Mélenchon did not "wanted to boast": "A lot of things are at stake at the end" and "it will be difficult for me until the end".

Asked about the criticisms of the socialist Anne Hidalgo and the ecologist Yannick Jadot on his geopolitical positions and the war in Ukraine, for which he pleads "non-alignment" vis-à-vis the Russians or the Americans, the head of file of the Insoumis launched: "The shots go in the back, those who are supposed to be in my political family in the broad sense would forget the far right?"

The fourth in the 2017 presidential election added: "While the second round is possible, they are mainly concerned about preventing me from doing so. But is it me or who? Le Pen or Zemmour. Are they signing for that?"

© 2022 AFP