France's 'hard left' has been demonised but its agenda is realistic not radical

I agree with this point. I'm left as well and 'our' side often gets complaints that we don't unite enough to stand against populism and extreme right that is on the rise in the EU (as now France and the Netherlands have fallen to the extreme right).

However, that is a lot harder to do if you have actual ideals and care about what you're saying. For populists it's easy to unite because they don't care about what they scream. They just shout whatever people want to hear, they don't actually care about it. We do believe in what we are saying. And real solutions are actually hard and require a lot of thought. Empty promises and blaming minorities for everything are super easy. It will obviously not lead to actual solutions, but this is the extreme-right game, they will constantly look for another minority to blame and focus hate on.

At least in the Netherlands we do have coalition politics so one party does not have to have a majority, small parties still matter. And I'm sure the current government will implode soon as they couldn't even stop fighting each other during their own inaugural debate :)