The French President, Emmanuel Macronrenewed for another term, prevailing by a 10-point lead over Marine LePenhis far-right opponent.
But the battle for France it’s just beginning. The country will hold parliamentary elections in June. And these may well markedly limit the ability to Macron to implement your vision.
UNDER SUPPORT
The center-right candidate imposed not so much because people really like it, but because they dislike their opponents more. Macron is almost universally seen as arrogant and elitist. The far-right Le Pen was found by the electorate to be more accessible, and more in tune with strong disenchantment with the political system, and growing anger over rising costs of living and other economic ills.
In the first round of elections french presidential, more than half of voters supported far-left or far-right candidates. Both extremes lost, but they can be decisive from the parliament.
is that the party of Macron, “The March of the Republic”, it lacks compelling candidates: it is just a collection of douchebags with little political experience. And given its low popularity ratings, it is very likely that “the march” will suffer serious losses.
Le Pen could well be the beneficiary of the June elections. But all eyes are on Jean-Luc Melenchona far-left politician who leads a movement called La France Insoumise, who advocates policies such as the imposition of a 100 percent tax on the rich, or the abolition of the right to private property, which coincides with Le Pen -although at the other extreme- in many diagnoses about what must change.
ON THE LEFT
melenchon is courting, since he came third in the first round of the presidential elections, allies to help him become prime minister in
June, giving him the power to hack Macron. A fervent opponent of the French president, he has promised to force him into an uncomfortable parliamentary “cohabitation” that will hamper reforms.
The 70-year-old leader of La France Insoumise, who had vowed to step down after his third presidential bid, said giving his party a majority in la Assemblée Nationale would turn the election into a “third round”. It would also resolve the dilemma of those voters -especially on the left- who felt politically orphaned by the result of the first: 7.7 million who voted for Mélenchon abstained in the final round because they did not feel represented.
The legislative vote, meanwhile, is traditionally contested along party lines, but Mélenchon is determined to make it personal. “I ask the French to elect me prime minister. I ask you to elect a majority of deputies from La France Insoumise. And I call on all those who want to join the Popular Union of the left in this beautiful fight, ”he pronounced last Monday with the result posted.
He reminded voters that it was the prime minister, not the president, who signed government decrees. “He would be prime minister not by the grace and favor of Macron, but because the French wanted him,” he said, adding that he would make the president “secondary.”
STAGE
“If it doesn’t suit the president then they can leave, because I won’t do it,” he risked in an interview.
Mélenchon’s ambitions they were boosted after she was just under half a million votes behind Le Pen in the first round on April 10. An election that saw the collapse of the traditional parties. The other three leftist candidates, from the Ecology party, the Communist Party and the Socialist Party (PS), obtained a total of just over 3 million votes. That would have secured their place in the second round if they had supported his campaign: the result angered many Mélenchon supporters, particularly young people and workers, sparking protests at Paris universities, including the Sorbonne and Sciences Po, over all because 41% of young people between 18 and 25 years old, more than 4 million voters, abstained in the first round.
The campaign for the 577 seats in the French lower house will begin on May 10. The centrist
Macron’s Republique en Marche (LREM) currently has 263 seats, the conservative opposition Les Républicains, 93; the centrist MoDem, 52; the PS, 25 and La France Insoumise only 17.
Union possible. Mélenchon insists that his Popular Union will lead in 105 constituencies and that a majority of 290 is “possible”. “If I don’t fight for this victory, what do I do: say ‘go ahead, give them all the power’? I don’t want Le Pen to win the country, and I don’t want Macron to stay in power. I say there is a third round. It is up to the French to decide who is the head of government,” he emphasized.
The politician would need the support of the entire French left-wing electorate, some 11.8 million of whom voted in the first round, if he has any chance of winning a majority in parliament after the June 12-19 elections.
“There are obstacles, but there is a common desire to create a union around a program”, he built bridges. “The question is, are they ready to come at us?” offered Mélenchon, who has struck a political masterstroke by learning the lesson of 2017 when he failed to unite the left after the presidential election.
“He is trying to consolidate the support of his base and has realized that the way to do it is from a position of strength. It is not a question of how many deputies he gets, but whether he can get environmentalists and communists to support him before the legislative elections, thus creating a political force”, analyzed Laurent Joffrin, former director of the Libération newspaper. That victory would tilt the European scenario in a completely opposite direction to the one proposed today.
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