Macron tried his best to torpedo the left and has been spending the entire election cycle shouting that the left wing coalition is as bad as the far right.

I thought Macron had more been drawing comparisons between the far-left - Melenchon / France Unbowed - and the far-right. Renaissance stood down many 3rd placed candidates in the second round when they were up against more moderate left parties like the Socialists, but drew a distinction when it came to France Unbowed.

Melenchon has a track record of saying some pretty questionable things with reference to Jewish people - denying French involvement in the Holocaust, claiming that the Jewish faith is at odds with assimilation into French culture, promoting the old antisemitic trope of Jewish guilt for the killing of Christ, and more. He also shares with Le Pen a deep hostility to the EU and NATO. In 2014, he spoke out in favour of Russia's annexation of Crimea, and he has blamed NATO for Russia's more recent invasion of Ukraine. Individually you might come up with reasons to excuse him for some of this, but collectively it seems hard to argue that he's not just a very unsavoury individual whose values and beliefs are very much at odds with inclusive 21st century internationalism.

lol careful your slip is showing, the far left is as bad as the far right, this is proven not only throughout all history, if you count the numbers of dead, but today's political bases across the entire world. left right and center are all bad in their own ways, far left and far right are trash garbage people who want nothing but nihlism and death. macron has spent the last week rallying the left, and getting members of his own party to drop out of the second round.