Jean-Luc Melenchon, Benoit Hamon, Yannick Jadot | AFP via Getty images French left seeks united front in election A combined vote could squeeze a left-wing candidate through to the runoff round.

The two leftist candidates in the French presidential election — Benoît Hamon and Jean-Luc Mélenchon — are in talks about launching a united bid for the top job, Bloomberg reported Friday.

Hamon, the Socialist Party's candidate, told France Inter radio that he is also speaking to Green Party leader Yannick Jadot.

Neither Hamon, Mélenchon nor Jadot is polling high enough to make it through to the second round of the election. Hamon is the most popular of the three, polling fourth behind Marine Le Pen, Emmanuel Macron and François Fillon. But if they joined forces, they could get a left-wing candidate in the runoff.

“What we need to discuss is the conditions under which we could come together and who in the end could — between Yannick Jadot, Jean-Luc Mélenchon and myself — be best suited to embody the left at the second round of the French presidential race,” Hamon said.

They would have to resolve substantial disagreements if they want to team up. Mélenchon, the leader of the Left Party, has repeatedly said he will not step down as an independent candidate in favor of Hamon.

In a letter to Hamon, Mélenchon laid out his conditions before the talks, demanding that Hamon denounce President François Hollande's time in office and support Mélenchon's Euroskeptic position, a demand unacceptable to the incumbent Socialists.

"It would not be easy. [Mélenchon] knows it as I do. What clearly separates us is the European ideal," Hamon said.