Emmanuel Macron has stripped off his institutional clothing this Wednesday to descend into the mud of the electoral campaign and charge against the left and the right that agree with the extremes of both sides of the political spectrum.
The French president, after suffering the worst defeat of his career in the European elections last Sunday, and less than three weeks before early legislative elections that have plunged France and Europe into uncertainty, described the agreements that the oppositions have begun to negotiate after the dissolution of the National Assembly. And he promised a broad alliance that includes centrists, socialists, environmentalists, Christian Democrats and moderate conservatives to defeat the extreme right of the National Regrouping (RN), favorite in the polls.
“Since Sunday night the masks have fallen,” the president said at a press conference in Paris. “The right turns its back on the legacy of General De Gaulle, Jacques Chirac and Nicolas Sarkozy,” he stated, alluding to the desire of Los Republicanos (LR), the moderate right twinned with the Spanish PP, to seek an alliance with the RN, winner in the Europeans.
He then alluded to the electoral agreement of the Socialist Party and the moderate left with the Eurosceptics and anti-Atlanticists of Jean-Luc Mélenchon. “The left,” he said, “has just allied itself with an extreme left that has taken responsibility these weeks for anti-Semitism, communitarianism and anti-parliamentarism.”
Events have accelerated since Macron’s surprise announcement on Sunday night was the dissolution of the National Assembly and the calling of early legislative elections at the end of the month. He decided it alone, without consulting more than a very small group of advisors, many of them in the field of communication and strategy, after knowing the results of the European elections. The RN, a far-right party led by Marine Le Pen, received almost one in three votes. The presidential list, less than half.
The press conference is the president’s first opportunity to explain in public and in time a decision that has baffled everyone, from his own party and government to European capitals. Initially, it was supposed to be on Tuesday, but it was postponed to this Wednesday, and the place was significant: not the Elysee Palace, since the conference was already a campaign event organized by the Renaissance party, but a venue in the center of Paris. His entire Government sat in the first rows.
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By dissolving the Assembly and calling early elections, Macron made the riskiest decision of his political career, which could lead Le Pen to the doors of the Government. He justified it, in the press conference, by the need to “not be deaf and give a democratic response” to the vote in the European elections. “The return to the sovereign people is the only republican decision.”
The appearance is the first act of one of the shortest campaigns in modern French history, less than three weeks for the parties to present their candidates and prepare their programs. The first round is on June 30 and the second on July 7. The 577 deputies of the National Assembly will be elected in two rounds, where the Macronists now enjoy a relative majority of 250 seats and the National Regroupment is the first opposition party with 88 seats.
The first polls published after the announcement of dissolution and new elections suggest that the RN could become the first party in the chamber, although without an absolute majority. These are projections and should be taken with a grain of salt, but they indicate a trend.
A poll by the Ifop institute and Le Figaro gives the RN 35% of votes in the first round, followed by the left-wing “new popular front”, with 25%. The Macronists – his Renaissance party, the center-right Horizontes and the centrists of MoDem – would obtain 18%. The right of Los Republicanos (LR), in full implosion due to its leader’s willingness to ally with the extreme right, would get 9%.
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