The French president decided this Sunday, by surprise and assuming an enormous political risk, to call early legislative elections, which will be held on June 30, the first round, and on July 7 the second, two weeks before the start of the Games. Paris Olympics. That has been his drastic response to the humiliating defeat suffered by the presidential party, Renaissance, and its political allies in the European elections, in which Marine Le Pen’s extreme right won a clear victory.
Macron’s announcement has caused a real political earthquake. Very few expected it. The president has said that “the rise of nationalists” throughout Europe is a danger, and that he wants to give the French people a voice to speak out.
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“We are prepared to be in power,” says far-right leader Marine le Pen
The head of state, whose mandate expires in May 2027, said that far-right parties have opposed in recent years many advances that have been made in Europe in many areas and, despite this, they have made progress throughout the world. continent. “After this day, I couldn’t act as if nothing had happened,” Macron added. “The rise of nationalists, demagogues, is a danger for our nation, but also for our Europe, for France’s place in Europe and in the world,” continued the president, who expressed his “confidence in our democracy, which the word be given to the sovereign people.”
President Macron, in his speech this Sunday from the Elysée announcing the early elections (LUDOVIC MARIN / AFP)
The head of the RN list, Jordan Bardella, had made an immediate statement after learning of the exit polls, which gave him around 32% of the vote, compared to just over 15% for Macron’s supporters, interpreting the result as “a clear rejection” of the president’s policy, whom he asked to change his policy, cancel some of the initiatives he plans in the coming months – in the economic and immigration spheres – and, above all, to dissolve the Assembly National and call early legislative elections. Macron agreed with him shortly after. According to Bardella, what happened means “day 1 after Macron”, of an alternation that should materialize in 2027 with Marine Le Pen’s accession to the presidency of the Republic.
The third political force is the list of Plaza Pública and the Socialist Party, headed by Raphaël Glucksmann, with 14.3%, followed by La Francia Insumida (LFI, radical left), with 8.3% and the traditional right ( The Republicans), which remains at 7%, always according to the TF1 survey. The Greens and the far-right Reconquista party are around 5%, the minimum bar to obtain representation.
“We are prepared to exercise power and put an end to this massive immigration,” says Marine Le Pen after learning that the people will vote
Marine Le Pen spoke when she learned that Macron had dissolved the National Assembly. “We are prepared to exercise power, ready to put an end to this massive immigration, to make purchasing power a priority, ready to revive France,” stressed the three-time Elysée candidate.
It is evident that Macron is making a very difficult bet, counting on the fact that, when push comes to shove, the French, who wanted to give him a punishing vote in the European elections, will think twice before handing over power to the extreme right. . It is an attempt to mobilize the electorate that has abstained, to get wet before the possibility of a potential dramatic change of course in French politics, with impact throughout Europe, even more so in the context of the war in Ukraine.
Since he was re-elected for a second five-year term in May 2022, Macron is a president with his hands tied because his supporters lost their absolute majority in the National Assembly in elections held just a month later. Some initiatives are blocked, forcing them to be moved forward by decree, as happened with the pension reform. This causes great wear and tear and delegitimizes the head of state and Parliament.
