On France Inter on Wednesday, Mathilde Panot, who leads the La France Insoumise group in the National Assembly, again used the phrase cancer coalition to describe a political bloc she places between Gabriel Attal and Marine Le Pen. It was not the first time, she had used the same term in a televised interview several weeks earlier.
Panot has said the label is not her own coinage. She attributes it to Fleur Breteau, who heads the campaign group Cancer Colere and first used the phrase during last summer's debate over the Duplomb law, legislation that drew a petition signed by roughly 2.2 million people.
The Duplomb law reauthorized acetamiprid, a neonicotinoid pesticide flagged for health risks. The Constitutional Council initially struck down that provision, and a revised version, sometimes called Duplomb 2, has since been passed by parliament and upheld by the same court. Panot argues the bloc she blames for the law spans the right, the far right and part of the political centre, which is the basis for grouping figures from Attal to Le Pen under one label.
On the radio, Panot said her party would use its parliamentary slot on October 29 to try to repeal the law, and framed one goal of the 2027 presidential race as breaking apart the coalition she blames for it, naming Le Pen, Attal and Edouard Philippe specifically.
This account draws on reporting by La Dépêche.