Declaring himself “an incorrigible optimist”, French President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday called on all French people “who reject the extremes” to vote for centrist parties in early elections and thus save the Republic from the intolerance of the far right and far-right anti-Semitism. the extreme left.
In a two-hour press conference, a third of which consisted of a speech by the president, Mr. Macron painted a grim picture of economic chaos, anarchy and a society where there are “real citizens French and small” if Marine Le The National Rally of Pen came to power.
“I do not intend to hand over the keys to power to the far right in 2027,” promised Mr. Macron, whose term is limited, referring to the next presidential election.
Yet by dissolving the National Assembly and calling legislative elections in 18 days, Mr Macron has opened up the possibility of having to hand over some of these keys in 2024. His bet that the National Rally, which won more than double the Le vote by Mr Macron’s centrist alliance in Sunday’s European elections will not repeat that performance in a national vote is high risk.
If the National Rally emerges as by far the largest party in the June 30 and July 7 elections, as polls currently indicate, Mr. Macron may be forced to appoint a prime minister from Ms. Le Pen’s party, probably its president, Jordan Bardella, 28 years old.
Asked why he rolled the dice, Mr. Macron said it was essential to have “clarification,” a word he returned to several times. He would have disrespected the will of the people, he insisted, if he had ignored the fact that “50% of French people voted for the extremes” in the European elections – a reference to far-right and far left. evenings.
“You would have said, ‘This guy lost it!’ ” “, did he declare.
Yet this is precisely what many French people are saying in recent days. Even members of his own party expressed dismay at a leader who made a decision that was not dictated by any constitutional requirement and which plunged the country into turmoil on the eve of the Olympic Games, which begin in Paris on next month.
Mr Macron said he would not resign under any circumstances, debate with Ms Le Pen and campaign for the election himself, a task he said would be led by Gabriel Attal, the Prime Minister. Of course, his speech on electoral priorities was itself clearly a campaign speech.
Asked repeatedly whether he would appoint Mr Bardella as prime minister if the National Rally triumphed, Mr Macron refused to engage in “fictitious” speculation and took refuge in defiant optimism. which for the moment seems more pious than anchored in facts.
Mr Macron’s efforts towards what remains of the French center seemed sincere and were laced with the word “humility”, as well as a promise to govern in a different way. But this could not prevent him from effectively eviscerating the center-right Republicans, who are questioning the advisability of allying with the National Rally in the elections, and, to a lesser extent, with the Center-left socialist party since coming to power. power in 2017.
He replaced them with a party that is little more than a personal vehicle representing the so-called “Macronie,” a collection of centrists whose main common characteristic is their fierce loyalty to the president.
Mr. Macron called on environmentalists, socialists, social democrats, radicals, and even what remains of the Communist Party, to come together before or after the elections and chart a new path for France. This, he says, would require recognizing the widespread sense of “loss of control, dispossession and relegation” among French citizens in rural areas and other places disconnected from the connected cities of the knowledge economy.
The problem is that Mr. Macron has already made such promises. At the time of the Yellow Vest protest movement that began in 2018, and after his re-election in 2022, he committed to listening better and assuming a new humility. There is no indication yet that the other political currents that he ignored during a very centralized and hierarchical presidency are ready to come to his aid.
“We are not perfect,” Macron said, while dodging personal responsibility for the heavy defeat in the European elections by claiming that far-right nationalist movements were growing in many European countries.
The president’s accusation of anti-Semitism seemed likely to anger the left-wing La France Insoumise party, founded by Jean-Luc Mélenchon, which has been fervent in its support of the Palestinians and virulent in its criticism of Israel since the start of the war in Gaza.
Mr. Mélenchon accused former Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne, daughter of a Holocaust survivor, of presenting a “foreign point of view,” and Yaël Braun-Pivet, the Jewish president of the now dissolved National Assembly. , from “camping in Tel Aviv.
Meanwhile, Ms Le Pen, whose father Jean-Marie Le Pen, founder of her party, was an outright anti-Semite, has openly defended Israel and says her party has now become the natural home of the French Jewish community. , given its hostility to Muslim immigration. Major Jewish organizations have so far resisted his calls.
Mr. Macron, clearly seeking to seduce National Rally voters, said he was determined to impose more “firmness” and “authority”, deploring that the measures already taken to increase the recruitment of police officers and curb immigration clandestine have not been “seen enough”. , sufficiently felt or understood by our compatriots.
Much of a talker, as he tends to do, Mr. Macron got excited on several occasions when he spoke of the defense of the Republic and the fundamental values of France. He equated the coming to power of the National Rally with a disaster that would impoverish and eviscerate the country.
“What would happen to your pensions if the National Rally governed? He asked. “What would become of your property loans, the cost of which will explode with the rise in interest rates? His voice rising, Mr. Macron continued: “What would happen to our values, and to our binational compatriots of diverse origins living in the projects?
There is a difference, Mr Macron argued, between an angry vote, as in the European Parliament elections, and the next legislative elections. Common-sense French people, he said, would take a step back.
He concluded thunderously: “No to defeat. Yes to waking up, to the leap forward for the Republic!
