 He served as the president of the party, and then as its co-president (along with Martine Billard) until August 2014.As leader of the Left Party, he joined the electoral coalition of the Left Front before the 2009 European elections, and was elected as a member of the European Parliament in the South-West constituency (reelected in 2014).He was the candidate of that coalition in the 2012 presidential election, in which he came in fourth, receiving 11.1% of the first-round votes.