The European elections produced a political shock in France. The victory of the National Regroupment (RN), led by far-right leader Marine Le Pen, forced Macron into a rapid defensive response.
The far-right candidate of RN, Jordan Bardella, obtains 32.4% of the votes, followed far by the official Valérie Hayer (15.2%) and the center-left Raphaël Glucksmann around 14%, according to estimates by the institutes of Ifop and Ipsos polls.
La Francia Insumisa (center-left coalition), led by Manon Aubry, obtained 10.1% of the votes cast, while The Republicans – a conservative right-wing party of which former president Nicolás Sarkozy is a part – obtained 7.2% of the votes, ahead of Marie Toussaint for Europa Ecology -The Greens, who obtained 5.5%, followed by Marion Maréchal’s list (Reconquista), with 5.2%.
Macron in a speech from the Elysée presidential palace stated: “I cannot act as if nothing had happened… this is not a good result for the parties that defend Europe”, alluding to the nationalist positions of RN, which it implies for that far right. anti-immigrant, racist policies. Something that Macron intended to “fight” with similar policies. But what is added to all of Europe is the crisis of the reactionary war in Russia-Ukraine, where imperialisms support Ukraine militarily – via NATO ( with the United States in the lead). What’s more, a few weeks ago Macron himself tried to cross the so-called “red line” (which the central countries are increasingly running a little further, although they do not want to do so definitively), stating that there was that armies had to be sent to Zelensky’s aid, against the determination of North American imperialism not to cross that line.
The truth is that these elections to the European Parliament take place in the midst of political tensions, an exacerbated armament of the main powers, which began to grow especially after the start of the war at the gates of Europe, the tensions in Asia-Pacific and the genocide that Israel is carrying out in the Gaza Strip, supported by all imperialisms, even against sectors of its own populations, especially the youth – who have been facing repression in many countries, by being in solidarity with the Palestinian people and demanding to cut that criminal support.
As stated in the declaration of Révolution Permanente (published in the French newspaper of the same name, which is part of the International Network La Izquierda Diario): “the campaign was generally anchored very far to the right, without being able to identify political lines of central debate, oscillating between different topics such as immigration, ecology (around the European Green Deal) and war, it is the duel between macronism and the RN, written largely by the media, which structured these European elections (…) the National Regrouping should achieve an important victory this coming Sunday, taking advantage of the hardening of the regime in recent months, marked by authoritarian offensives, the adoption of a historically brutal immigration law and serial reactionary campaigns, especially in schools and among young people. Attacks that were facilitated by the defeat of the workers in the battle for pensions, where the conciliatory policy of the union leaderships prevented. take advantage of the deep crisis of the government and the regime despite massive anger. A crisis that continues for the government, while the appointment of Gabriel Attal (prime minister) has failed to reverse the trend.”
This “hardening of the regime” also facilitated in some way Le Pen’s intention to appear “moderate”, in the sense of being able to show an image of “normalization”, although many analysts already warn that a large part of that 32.4% It is composed of a “rating vote” towards Macron. Jordan Bardella, the first candidate, is proof of this attempt to show an image of “moderation”, since this young far-right man is the son of Italian and Algerian immigrants. With these results and if they are repeated for the Legislative Assembly (lower house of the French parliament), the situation may arise where Bardella becomes prime minister.
Faced with the advance of the extreme right, thousands of people came out to demonstrate against it in the Place de la République in Paris.
In these elections, the list headed by Raphaël Glucksmann, the self-proclaimed “Socialist Party”, a PS in crisis for several years, with a general center-left orientation, came in third place. According to Ipsos it would be at 14% of the votes.
Europe
The results of the European elections are marked by the worrying rise of the extreme right.
In addition to the result in France, in Germany the extreme right also advanced and the social democratic party of Chancellor Olaf Sholz, according to the first polls it is in third place behind the right and the extreme right. In Italy, Meloni is in first position.
In the Spanish State, the right also won, represented by the Popular Party, although without taking much advantage of Pedro Sánchez’s PSOE (34.18% and 30.18% respectively). While there was concern in the ranks of VOX, the far-right party, friends of Argentine President Javier Milei, obtained results that, although they went from 6.21% in 2019 to 9.62%, this result represents a decline compared to 12, 38% of the general elections of 2023. It seems that Abascal, leader of VOX, did not benefit much from Milei’s little trip to the meeting of the far-right international a few weeks ago.
In the European Chamber of Deputies, with a total of 720 seats, the conservative, liberal and social democratic blocs will maintain the majority, while the right-wing European People’s Party will also continue to be the main political force with 181 seats.
