After another defeat by the far-right in the first round of parliamentary elections held on Sunday, the future of French President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist party is in jeopardy.
French President Emmanuel Macron, who called snap elections on June 9 after his party lost European elections, saw his centrist coalition suffer another humiliating defeat on Sunday. His alliance came third with 20.7% of the vote, while the alliance of leftist parties, the New Popular Front, got 28.1%.
he far-right National Rally scored 33.5%, doubling its result compared to the last legislative election in 2022.
What do these results mean for the presidential camp?
When French President Emmanuel Macron called for early elections, he promised “a time of essential clarification”.
But after three weeks of hasty and confusing campaigning, the results show that the President’s “bet” has failed.
“Coming third in the election he provoked is a big loss,” said Emmanuel Rivière, a political and poll expert.
In a written statement, Macron did not concede that his party had been defeated, but instead called for “a broad, clearly democratic and republican rally for the second round”.
Macron and his allies have called on their supporters to prevent the far-right from taking office in the next round of legislative elections scheduled for July 7.
Gabriel Attal, Macron’s outgoing prime minister, urged voters to prevent the Rally National from winning, but also said Jean-Luc Melenchon’s France Unbowed party is not a credible choice. However, the effectiveness of this “republican front” against the extreme right has weakened over the years.
What next for Macron’s centrist party?
In many ways, Sunday’s vote was a protest against the president’s handling of key domestic issues, according to François-Xavier Millet, a political expert and professor at the University of the Antilles.
He said that “there is no hope for the presidential party in the short term”.
But in the long term, Millet believes Macron can still save what is left of his party if the National Rally wins an absolute majority of seats: “If the extreme right leads the government, Macron can try to regain some kind of political legitimacy in long-term, posing as the guarantor of the Constitution, trying to protect the French from some of the decisions of the extreme right.”
With an unprecedented number of seats going to a three-candidate runoff, political negotiations will now begin.
The parties will decide who to withdraw in order to have the best chance of defeating far-right candidates in their constituencies.
Applications for the second round must be submitted by Tuesday at 18:00 by candidates who received at least 12.5% of the votes of registered voters.
Just last week, Philippe accused Macron of “killing the presidential majority” and many other politicians from the presidential camp have expressed their disappointment and dismay at his decision to dissolve the National Assembly.
Many candidates running under the centrist alliance even refused to put Emmanuel Macron’s face on their election posters, fearing his image could hurt their chances of being elected.
