 The association L214, which is a non-profit for animal protection, stated that he was the only candidate "for animals" during its evaluation of the candidates' programmes, giving him a score of 15.7/20, placing him at the head of 11 candidates.Jean-Luc Mélenchon's attendance before the 2012 presidential election was at 63%, and after this, his average is often compiled with pre-2012, so it is compiled at 71.40% Mélenchon justified his relatively low attendance with how active he is within France itself, and has posted a list of other reasons on his blog.He increased his attendance after that, with the website "votewatch.eu" reporting it in 2017 at 85.1%

Mélenchon mocked accusations of support for Vladimir Putin, saying that it is unlike an "eco-socialist" to support Vladimir Putin, and has stressed that Putin had "imprisoned [his] friends in Russia", and when attacked by Benoit Hamon on the topic of Putin, he stated