PARIS — Far-left leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon is on a mission to convince the world he's the victim of a conspiracy — one that goes all the way to the top of the French state.

The France Unbowed chief, who came fourth in last year's presidential election, is taking to Facebook livestreams and iPhone monologues to harp on what he calls a "Macronism-media-prosecutor" conspiracy against him. The early signs are that the ranting and raving are not going down well with the French public, as Mélenchon seeks to build support for an international leftist alliance for next year's European Parliament election.

The plot alleged by Mélenchon, which presumably draws support from President Emmanuel Macron's backers, centers around an October 16 raid on the far-left leader's apartment and office by magistrates investigating suspected campaign finance fraud in his 2017 bid for president. In a video of a standoff between Mélenchon's followers and the investigators standing outside his office, the 67-year-old firebrand can be seen leaning nose-to-nose with an officer and shouting "La République, c'est moi!" ("I am the Republic!") as the man quietly asks him to take a few steps back.

Mélenchon was only getting started. Three days after the raids, which targeted the homes of 10 France Unbowed aides in addition to his own, the party leader held a news conference during which he railed against what he called a "political police" and accused Macron of using the judicial system to undermine his movement. He then turned his wrath to the media, vowing to sue news channel BFM for defamation, accusing journalists from public news outlet FranceInfo of being "liars and cheats," and mocking a female reporter who tried to ask him a question for having an accent from southern France.

FranceInfo director Vincent Giret defended his staff, saying: "This call to hatred and violence is irresponsible."

Much of the anti-media rhetoric is par for the course for Mélenchon, whose backers this year launched alternative outlet "Le Média" to get around traditional brands. In May 2017, Le Média's chief, Sophia Chikirou, told Le Monde that she had "thought out, organized, theorized" run-ins with journalists during the presidential campaign. "I was in charge of creating the sound and fury," she told the paper.

The jury is out on whether that strategy will work for Mélenchon this time.

"In the case of Jean-Luc Mélenchon and his supporters, this could gather them more closely around their leader as he is attacked, but it could also have the effect of disappointing those who saw hope in him for the left," said Bruno Cautrès of the CEVIPOF polling institute.

"A lot will depend on the outcome of the judicial investigation," he added.

Initial indications are not good for Mélenchon. According to an OpinionWay/LCI poll published on Monday, his approval score has dropped by 7 percentage points since last month, with 22 percent of respondents approving of his job performance. Among hardcore backers — those who voted for him in round one of the presidential election — the level of support had fallen by 15 points.

Socialists scandalized

Bigwigs in the decimated Socialist Party are savoring Mélenchon's fall, a year after he helped to bury them in a far-left onslaught. Ex-President François Hollande and current Education Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer called on their former party comrade to cool the conspiratorial rhetoric and apologize for his behavior. European Commissioner Pierre Moscovici added to the Socialist pile-on.

"He is behaving like the populists who practice illiberal democracy. What he's doing to the press, to the justice system, it's not very different from what happens with Orbán or Kaczyński," Moscivici lamented Monday on FranceInter radio, referring to the dominant political figures in Hungary and Poland.

"He has the right to political combat, to be angry, but the revolt against the institutions, calling for a kind of democratic insurrection — no, no and no!" he declared.

The left-leaning Libération newspaper also came out against Mélenchon. In a critical op-ed, editor Laurent Joffrin pointed out that none of the judicial officials involved in organizing the raid against Mélenchon's party have any affiliation to Macron's camp, while others have been in their jobs since before he was elected president.

Normally, Mélenchon could brush off such criticism as being part of the broader conspiracy. But in the run-up to the European Parliament election next May, the facts at the center of the campaign finance probe may prove problematic even for someone who has thrived off his denunciations of fake news in the traditional media.

The admirer of Hugo Chávez is eyeing a chunk of seats in the Parliament — and the juicy expense accounts that come with them — thanks to an alliance of left-wing parties called "Now, the People!" But his campaign will stutter without adequate funding, and Mélenchon's camp could end up facing a hefty financial penalty if magistrates find it deliberately violated campaign finance laws.

According to Le Figaro, investigators are examining whether a PR firm run by Chikirou overcharged France Unbowed to inflate public reimbursements to the campaign. Contracts reportedly included subtitling videos for €200 per minute, a service that normally costs €15.

So far, the people are not showing much enthusiasm for "Now, the People!" A September survey ranked the group fourth with 12.5 percent of the projected vote, behind Macron's centrist La République en Marche and Marine Le Pen's far-right National Rally.