French President Emmanuel Macron dissolved the lower house of parliament on Sunday and called for legislative elections to begin on June 30 as the far right suffered a crushing defeat in European elections.
His decision, announced in a nationally broadcast television program, was a reflection of the turmoil caused by Macron’s crushing defeat in European Parliament elections. The National Rally, led by Marine Le Pen and her popular protégé Jordan Bardera, is forecast to get about 31.5% of the vote, while Macron’s Ennahda party gets about 15.2%.
“The rise of nationalists and demagogues is a danger for our country and for Europe,” Mr Macron said. “After this day, I can no longer carry on as if nothing happened.”
The French leader has been an enthusiastic supporter of the 27-nation European Union, believing it is the only way for Europe to gain a place in the world, and has called for Europe to achieve “strategic autonomy” through greater integration. But the political winds have shifted, and many French appear to be less pro-European, not more.
Mr Macron’s decision, taken in the run-up to the opening of the Summer Olympics in Paris in July, has kicked off a period of high political uncertainty in France. If the national rallies are repeated in national elections, the country could become virtually ungovernable and Mr Macron would face a parliament hostile to everything he believes in.
“This is a serious and momentous decision,” he admitted. “But above all, it is an act of trust in the French electorate,” he said.
French parliamentary elections are held in two rounds. The second round will be held on July 7, less than a month away.
Given France’s prominence at the heart of the European Union, the European election results are an important sign of a strong rightward shift in Europe, driven primarily by concerns about uncontrolled migration. The nationalist right is also more ambivalent about supporting Ukraine than Macron and other Western leaders.
In an emotional speech, Ms Le Pen said she welcomed Mr Macron’s decision.
“If the French people trust us, we are ready to exercise power,” Le Pen told cheering supporters in Paris. “We’re ready to turn this country around.”
The victory in the legislative elections that Mr. Macron has just called for a national rally will not remove him from power. But depending on the outcome, it could force him to appoint a prime minister from among his political opponents – and possibly even the national assembly.
Earlier, Bardera, 28, called Macron a “weakened” leader in a victory speech and warned him to dissolve the National Assembly in light of the vote results. “This is a verdict without appeal,” he declared. “France has shown a desire for change.”
Mr Macron accepted the challenge.
He is under no obligation to dissolve parliament, even if the European vote reduces his numbers with three years left in his presidential term.
But he often takes risks, rolling the dice to see whether France will eventually wake up to what he sees as dire nationalist and xenophobic threats to the country’s freedom, democracy, openness and the rule of law.
He called the wave of far-right nationalism “a threat to France’s position in Europe and the world,” noting that he said so as “we have just celebrated the D-Day landings with the whole world and will welcome France’s landings in a few weeks.” Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Macron, who spoke as President Joe Biden left France after a five-day stay, wore an uncharacteristically black tie and looked serious. A central theme of his visit was how Western democracies should be inspired to defend Ukraine’s freedoms after American troops stormed the cliffs of Normandy eighty years ago under a hail of Nazi bullets to wrest Europe from tyranny.
Ms. Le Pen’s party has long had close ties to Russian President Vladimir V. Putin, a policy that is now being revised, at least officially.
“The great victory of the patriotic movement is in line with the historical direction of national rejuvenation around the world,” Le Pen said, adding that “it ends the painful globalist bracket that has led to the suffering of so many people around the world.”
Sunday’s election results were no surprise, but Macron overwhelmingly denied them. brought war.
Luc Ruban, a senior fellow at the Political Research Center of Sciences Po in Paris, said Macron’s call for new legislative elections was a risky gamble to “regain control of a political situation that has become too unmanageable,” especially in 2022. The last legislative vote left him short of an absolute majority in parliament.
“He may end up living together,” Mr. Luban said of the upcoming vote. “But to wait is to allow the far right to flourish and the situation to fester until the presidential election – when a national rally can occupy the Elysée Palace.”
After decades of marginality, the anti-immigration French far-right now appears to be firmly entrenched in mainstream politics, with Bardera, the young president of the National Rally party, becoming its new face. His party won at least twice as many votes as Mr Macron.
Even before the next presidential election in 2027, when Macron is term-limited, it is now an open question whether Bardera will replace Le Pen as the party leader. Since 2012, Ms Le Pen has been the perennial presidential candidate and perennial underdog at rallies across the country.
The party has traditionally performed well in European Parliament elections, where the 360 million voters in the 27-nation European Union tend to express anger and frustration because it has little direct impact domestically. It led in turnout in 2014 and again in 2019, when Ms Le Pen’s party beat Mr Macron’s Ennahda party with 23% of the vote to 22%.
But it was a different story on Sunday, when France’s abstention rate fell compared with the last election. With nearly a third of the vote, the National Rally looms large in French politics, and Macron’s decision to call an election reflects this.
Although the center-left Socialist Party showed some signs of revival, the victory was generally seen as an embarrassment for mainstream parties. The results reflect a widespread belief in France that migration is uncontrolled at EU borders and Macron’s lenient approach to lawlessness and violence.
Bardella campaigned on the loss of French identity and suggested the country was in danger of “disappearing”. He also attacked the “punitive” ecological measures often imposed by the EU, which he insisted made life unaffordable.
But his positions on issues such as immigration and crime are consistent with those of Ms Le Pen. The difference, for a significant number of voters, is that his last name is not Le Pen, and that the surname has unsavory links to the racist and anti-Semitic roots of the National Front founded by Ms Le Pen’s father, Jean-Marie Le Pen. .
Macron’s party has been in second place in opinion polls for months, lagging far behind in national rallies. Renaissance’s top candidate, Valérie Hayer, is a little-known MEP who has left voters in the cold. The campaign looked lackluster and Macron’s attempts to revive it, including a major speech on Europe’s future in April, backfired.
National rallies turned the election into an anti-Macron referendum. It seems this has worked.
Seven years in power has taken its toll on Mr Macron, whose sudden rise to the presidency at the age of 39 has upended French politics.
Mr. Bardera sounded cautious but determined in his brief victory speech. “With this historic achievement of our party, French citizens expressed their attachment to France, its sovereignty, its identity, its security and its prosperity,” he said. He called on Macron to reconsider immigration policy, protect farmers and defend purchasing power across the country.
“He was impeccable as always,” said Nadège Moia, a 45-year-old sales representative who was attending the party’s raucous victory rally at a conference center in eastern Paris.
Segolena Lestradic Contributed reporting.
