Radical-left agitators and supporters of Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s far-left France Unbowed (LFI) subjected Marine Le Pen to nearly 45 minutes of verbal abuse and intimidation during a campaign visit to a major manufacturing exhibition in Paris on Friday, 13 November. The National Rally (RN) presidential candidate accused the far left of attempting to silence political opponents through aggressive tactics ahead of France’s 2027 presidential election.
The confrontation erupted at the Salon du Made in France exhibition at Porte de Versailles, where Le Pen had arrived to promote domestic manufacturing, purchasing power and preferential treatment for French businesses in public procurement. Mélenchon had visited the exhibition earlier that day.
According to AFP, several dozen hostile activists, including secondary-school students and LFI sympathizers, surrounded Le Pen’s entourage, shouting insults and anti-RN slogans. Some demanded that she ‘give back the money’—a reference to her conviction over the misuse of European Parliament funds—while others chanted ‘Mélenchon for president’ and vulgar anti-RN slogans. Around 15 young RN activists attempted to drown out the hostile chants with calls of ‘Marine for president’.
Despite the aggressive reception, Le Pen maintained her composure, smiling and blowing kisses towards the hecklers before briefly taking a break during her visit. She subsequently continued meeting exhibitors without further incident.
Le Pen later denounced the far left’s confrontational methods, accusing Mélenchon’s supporters of attempting to impose through intimidation what they could not achieve through democratic debate.
‘I ask Jean-Luc Mélenchon to call on his activists to allow other candidates to campaign without intimidation, shoving, aggression or insults. This is an essential condition of democracy,’ she wrote on X.
She also questioned Mélenchon’s authority over his supporters, describing such tactics as a ‘trademark of the extreme left’ and warning that their continued use could make normal election campaigning impossible.
LFI MP Aurélie Trouvé dismissed Le Pen’s accusations, portraying the hostile crowd as ordinary exhibition visitors expressing their political opposition. Speaking to BFMTV, she denied that LFI had deployed activists to disrupt the visit.
The confrontation comes as Le Pen maintains a commanding lead ahead of the April 2027 presidential election. A November Toluna Harris Interactive poll placed her on 34–36 per cent, against Mélenchon’s 18–19 per cent. In a hypothetical run-off between the two rivals, Le Pen would win by a landslide, with 68 per cent against Mélenchon’s 32 per cent.