French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal insisted today that President Emmanuel Macron will remain in office, even in the event of a defeat for the ruling party in the upcoming legislative elections.
“Whatever the result, the president will continue to be the president,” he stressed in statements to the newspaper Le Parisien, just a week before the first round of the elections, called by the head of state after dissolving the National Assembly, when reacting to the broad victory of the extreme right in the European elections on June 9.
According to Attal, in the legislative elections the position of President of the Republic will not be at stake, only that of Prime Minister, reserved for the force that wins the absolute majority in the lower house.
The polls place the party identified with the extreme right National Rally (RN), winner in the recent European elections, at the top of voting intentions, followed by the left-wing Popular Front bloc, relegating the ruling party to third place.
Hypotheses abound in the media and social networks that Macron would have no choice but to resign if defeat is confirmed, a scenario that the president himself has already rejected, for which he used the French Constitution.
According to the prime minister, the leader of RN, Marine Le Pen, intends to transform the legislative elections into presidential ones.
Le Pen stated on Friday that if the setback projected by all the polls materialized, Macron would be forced to resign from the Elysée, clarifying that her comment does not imply a demand for resignation.
Within the ranks of the ruling Renacimiento party and its allies, some believe that the president made a mistake by dissolving the National Assembly, creating a panorama of great political risk.
In this regard, the president defends his decision with the argument that he returned the power to choose to the people, in elections in which he seeks to convince the French that his camp is the only republican one capable of stopping the rise of extremes. , from the right and from the left.
