France‘s firebrand former presidential candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon announced Friday that he was stepping down as co-president of the radical Left Party after electoral setbacks, reports Europe Online.
Addressing party members at a conference Mélenchon, 63, emphasized he was not quitting politics and that his resignation was part of a strategic reorganization of the party, France Inter radio reported.
The party‘s other co-president is parliamentarian Martine Billard.
Melenchon finished fourth in the 2012 presidential election on an anti-austerity platform, behind François Hollande, Nicolas Sarkozy and his arch-enemy, the far-right National Front's Marine Le Pen.
The razor-tongued politician, who famously nicknamed Hollande a "pedal boat captain", was particularly disappointed at being out-polled by Le Pen.
In the past two years, as Le Pen‘s star rose further, including among left-wing voters, Mélenchon‘s plummeted.
The Left Front, a coalition of the Left Party, the once-powerful Communist Party and other far-left parties, won just 6.3 per cent of the vote in in May‘s European elections, compared with 24.8 per cent for the vote-topping FN.
The usually combative Mélenchon appeared crushed by the FN‘s victory, choking back tears at a press conference, where he declared his heart was "bleeding" for the country.
Read more of this DPA report published by Europe Online.