PARIS (Reuters) – The presidential camp, which is playing for its survival after the sanction of the first round of the legislative elections, failed on Monday to define a clear line to break the momentum of the National Rally in the second round, between Emmanuel Macron calling for a repeat of the “republican barrier” of 2017 and 2022 and ministers pleading for “neither RN nor LFI”.
With a historic turnout (nearly 67%), the first round of early legislative elections on Sunday confirmed the momentum of the European elections of June 9 in favor of the RN of Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella.
The surprise and misunderstood dissolution desired by Emmanuel Macron, for the purposes of political “clarification”, has ultimately confirmed at its expense the predominance of the extreme right, which is now seeking an absolute majority in the National Assembly to impose cohabitation on the head of state.
The first round of the legislative elections resulted in an exceptional number of “triangular” races, where the RN is often in the lead, and a handful of “quadrangular” races. According to the Ipsos and Elabe institutes, the number of constituencies concerned is estimated at between 285 and 315 and between 290 and 320 respectively.
Their final number will be known by Tuesday 6:00 p.m., the deadline by which qualified candidates must confirm or withdraw their applications.
Faced with this scenario potentially favorable to the RN, the political leadership laid the foundations of a “Republican front” on Sunday evening, which led to Emmanuel Macron being elected in the second round of the 2017 presidential election against Marine Le Pen and re-elected in 2022 against the latter.
The left-wing coalition of the New Popular Front (NFP), through the voice of the leader of La France Insoumise Jean-Luc Mélenchon, has called for the withdrawal of its candidates who came in third place in the constituencies where the RN is in the lead.
The first secretary of the Socialist Party Olivier Faure, the national secretary of Europe Ecologie-Les Verts (EELV), Marine Tondelier, and Raphaël Glucksmann (Place Publique) relayed the instruction of “building a new republican front”, urging the Macronist camp to do the same.
“You have to know how to step back, you have to delve into yourself and find the strength within yourself to vote for people, certainly those you don’t like, even those you fight against (…)”, Raphaël Glucksmann reiterated on TF1’s 8pm news.
“It could come down to a few MPs,” he added.
DISSONANCES
The Republicans (LR) have refused to give a national instruction in the constituencies where the party is not present in the second round, leaving voters to “express their conscience”.
“Our candidates are rooted and are in no way responsible for the political earthquake caused by Emmanuel Macron,” said the LR president of the Hauts-de-France region, Xavier Bertrand, also a guest on TF1 on Monday evening.
Within the “Together for the Republic” coalition, the strategy for the second round revealed new divisions, already crudely exposed after the dissolution, with former Prime Minister Edouard Philippe (Horizons) accusing Emmanuel Macron of having “killed” the presidential majority, Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire castigating the “woodlice” of the Elysée Palace and Prime Minister Gabriel Attal distancing himself from the man who had appointed him on January 9.
After a brief written statement on Sunday evening defending “a broad, clearly democratic and republican gathering for the second round”, Emmanuel Macron brought his government together on Monday at the Elysée to clarify his intentions in the face of acute dissonance in his camp.
In a solemn declaration on Sunday evening at Matignon, Gabriel Attal called for the “choice of honour” by calling for the withdrawal of the candidates of “Together for the Republic” whose continuation could lead to the election of an RN deputy “in the face of another candidate who defends the values of the Republic”.
The question of the conformity of the candidates of LFI, a component of the NFP that Emmanuel Macron sent back to back with the RN during the first round campaign, with the “republican values” is the subject of arbitration by the campaign teams of the outgoing majority.
An approach that was immediately rejected by Edouard Philippe and several ministers, including Bruno Le Maire and Aurore Bergé (Equality between men and women).
For the latter, the instruction is unambiguous: “neither” RN, “nor” LFI.
These ministers, including Christophe Béchu (Ecological Transition), close to Edouard Philippe, reaffirmed their credo during the meeting at the Elysée, according to several media outlets.
“TO STORM!”
“The president said that the priority was to avoid an absolute majority for the RN. There was a sharing of views, with ministers who expressed their strong emotion,” a participant reported to Reuters.
“Everyone called for a blockade” in 2017 and 2022, “so we must call for it to be done today,” Emmanuel Macron said, according to the same source, which added that the head of state did not explicitly mention the specific case of LFI. “To the assault!”, the president declared.
Gabriel Attal was to relay these instructions during a videoconference with the Macronist “troops”.
Among the 24 ministers running in the legislative elections, the Minister Delegate for the Elderly and Disabled, Fadila Khattabi, has already withdrawn in the 3rd constituency of Côte-d’Or, like other “Ensemble” candidates.
Questioned during the 8 p.m. news on TF1, the Prime Minister reiterated his call for withdrawal in the event of a risk of victory for an RN candidate.
“In constituencies where maintaining our candidate would lead to a guaranteed victory for the far right, against a candidate who defends republican values, then we withdraw,” declared Gabriel Attal.
Some candidates are however holding on: in the 3rd constituency of Val-de-Marne, in the 2nd constituency of Somme, in the 4th constituency of Sarthe where Marie-Caroline Le Pen (RN) is largely ahead, or in the 5th constituency of Saône-et-Loire in a rare four-way race. The Minister Delegate for Communities and Rural Affairs, Dominique Faure, is holding on in the 10th constituency of Haute-Garonne.
Gabriel Attal had called on Sunday evening for “majorities of projects and ideas” with the “republican forces”. In a gesture of openness, he suspended the implementation of the contested reform of unemployment insurance, the implementing decree of which was to come into force this Monday.
The left gave him a firm no. Olivier Faure refused to be “the substitute for a majority in disarray” and Manuel Bompard, coordinator of LFI, considered that the presidential camp was not “very well placed to call for rallying around him”.
The RN and its allies from the Republicans obtained 33.15% of the votes in the first round, ahead of the NFP, credited with 27.99%, and the presidential coalition “Together for the Republic” (20.4%).
SEE AS WELL:
UPDATE on the early legislative elections in France
(Written by Sophie Louet, with contributions from Blandine Henault, Michel Rose and Kate Entringer, edited by Tangi Salaün)
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