Communists will not join Jean-Luc Melenchon’s La France Insoumise (France Unbowed) in a planned mass demonstration against attacks on the Labour Code, party leader Pierre Laurent said yesterday.

“The labour ordinances are an extremely dangerous project, but I will not participate because we are engaged in marches for peace,” explained the French Communist Party national secretary.

The clash between the two events, both taking place next Saturday, will heighten fears that the French left is failing to unite against the threat to workers’ rights posed by President Emmanuel Macron.