Emmanuel Macron called early elections after the far-right’s landslide victory in European elections and the results dealt a heavy blow to the French president.
Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Reconciliation (RN) party won 33% of the vote, followed by Nova Frente Popular, a coalition of leftist parties, with 28.5%.
The centre-right coalition group, which includes President Emmanuel Macron’s party, suffered a heavy defeat on the night, coming in third with just 22%.
RN leader and prime ministerial candidate Jordan Bartella welcomed the results and showed he had already rehearsed a speech promising to be “a prime minister for all the French people” next weekend. If Jordan Bartella becomes prime minister, it will be the first time a far-right government has led France since World War II.
However, Le Pen’s party did not get an outright majority. A decisive week of political negotiations will dictate the direction France takes.
Will the “Republican Front” work?
The chances of the RN winning the second round of the election will depend on the political agreements the opponents make in the coming days.
In the past, traditional right-wing and left-wing parties have made deals to withdraw candidates from the second round to avoid splitting the vote against the RN – a tactical voting strategy known as the “republican front”.
On Sunday night, the leaders of the new Popular Front, Jean-Luc Mélenchon and Olivier Faure, announced they were withdrawing their candidacies in the constituencies where they came third in a bid to stem the advance of the far-right.
“Our strategy is clear: no more one vote for the National Union, no more a deputy,” said Jean-Luc Mélenchon, head of the far-left France Insubmissa movement, which is forming a new People’s Front with socialists, communists and others. Ecologists
“What choice for the second round? New Popular Front or R.N. Under these conditions, we cannot make the following reasonable proposals or demands to our people: It is necessary to give absolute majority to the New Popular Front because that is the only alternative”, he said.
French Prime Minister and Assembly spokesman Gabriel Attal announced the withdrawal of nearly 70 candidates in constituencies where Emmanuel Macron’s party came third. A difficult and “responsible” choice, he admitted.
“Our objective is clear: to prevent the RN from gaining an absolute majority in the second round, dominating the National Assembly and ruling the country with its disastrous plan,” he declared. “Not a single vote should go to national restructuring,” he reiterated.
The French right is following the same strategy. This Monday, RN representatives urged centre-right politicians from the Republican Party – who received less than 7% of the vote in the first round – to withdraw from the districts in favor of the RN.
“If they know they’re not going to win, I’m asking them to stand down and let national reform win,” said RN Vice President LaureLavalet.
But the Republican Party’s strategy is more nuanced than ever.
In a written statement, Macron called on voters to unite behind “clearly republican and democratic” candidates, which, based on his recent statements, would exclude candidates from the RN and Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s renegade France, but not candidates representing the most moderate. Leftist parties of the New Popular Front.
French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire also ruled out asking voters to choose a far-left candidate from France’s Insubmissa party if the only realistic option was to field an RN candidate.
So the future of French politics will be decided in the second round of elections next Sunday, July 7th.
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