Macron hopes the French will make the “right decision” after calling early elections

President Emmanuel Macron expressed this Monday his confidence that the French will make the “right decision” in the early legislative elections that he unexpectedly called the day before after the resounding victory of the far-right in the European elections.

“I am confident in the ability of the French people to make the right choice for themselves and for future generations. My only ambition is to be useful to our country, which I love so much,” Macron wrote on the social network X, after advancing the elections to June 30 and July 7.

France woke up shocked by the early elections, only two years after the last legislative elections, following the victory of the far-right National Rally party (RN) with 31.37% of votes in the European elections, one of the best results in his story.

The candidate of Macron’s centrist alliance, Valérie Hayer, came in second position with 14.60% of the votes, followed by the socialists (13.83%), La Francia Insumisa (radical left, 9.89%), The Republicans (right, 7.25%), the environmentalists (5.5%) and the ultra party ¡Reconquista! (5.47%), according to official figures.

The newspapers warned this Monday of the president’s “risky bet.” “Just like the Roman emperor [Nerón] “set fire to ancient Rome, did Emmanuel Macron light the match that will set fire to his own citadel?” concluded the editorial of the liberal newspaper L’Opinion.

RN has already announced that its candidate for prime minister, if they manage to form a government after the elections, will be its victorious head of the list in the European elections, MEP Jordan Bardella, 28, indicated the party’s vice president Sébastien Chenu in the RTL radio.

“I have heard your message, your concerns and I will not leave them unanswered (…) In a few moments I will sign the decree calling for the legislative elections whose first round will take place on June 30 and the runoff on July 7,” Macron announced. in a televised message after the first results on Sunday, calling the “rise of nationalists and demagogues” a “danger.”

“I could not continue, at the end of this day, looking the other way. Added to this situation is the fever that has infected the public and parliamentary debate in our country,” he said from the Elysée.

“That is why, after having proceeded to the prior consultations of article 12 of our Constitution, I decided to return the word of our future parliamentarian through the vote,” he added.

Early elections would not affect Macron, who would remain president until 2027, but he could have to share power with a government of a different political color shortly before the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Since 1958, two presidents were in the same situation during part of their mandates: the socialist François Mitterrand (1981-1995) with conservative governments and the conservative Jacques Chirac (1995-2007) with the socialist Lionel Jospin.

Uncertainty hovers over whether the left-wing forces – socialists, environmentalists, communists and radical left – will manage to reissue a common front like in 2022, which ended up breaking up due to disagreements between its most social democratic wing and La Francia Insumisa. Source: Infobae

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