Campaign volunteers for the leader of the political movement "La France Insoumise" Jean-Luc Melenchon are gearing up for what they expect will be a massive march in Paris for the far-left candidate. <br /> <br />The "March for the Sixth Republic" planned on Saturday (March 17) aims at gathering citizens around Melenchon's project for a new constitution and new institutions. <br /> <br />An IFOP daily poll of voting intentions on Thursday (March 16) showed Melenchon trailing in fifth place, getting 11 percent of the vote in the first round. <br /> <br />His campaign march five years ago, dubbed as the "Storming of the Bastille" gathered tens of thousands of people. This year, Melenchon plans to deliver a speech at the Place de la Republique. <br /> <br />A coordinator for the volunteers' group of Melenchon's movement, Romain Jammes, says he supports the idea of a sixth Republic because of the ever-widening gap between politicians and citizens. He pointed out the formal charges against conservative candidate Francois Fillon for alleged misuse of public funds. <br /> <br />"The sixth Republic, it echoes this feeling that we are being ripped off in this story," Jammes said. <br /> <br />The French far-left candidate is a well-known firebrand figure of the national political scene. <br /> <br />In the 2012 presidential election, Melenchon pulled a surprise when he emerged as fourth place after the first round, with more than 11 percent of the vote. <br /> <br />Since then, he has reshaped his political programme to incorporate environmental themes. <br /> <br />He has also used YouTube to reach a younger generation of voters. <br /> <br />Member of the European parliament since 2009, he had opposed the passage of the free-trade agreement between Canada and the European Union and has lobbied for greater regulations within the European Union. <br /> <br />In 2015, he supported the "no" vote in the Greek referendum on bailout terms, as an ally of Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras.
