A meeting was organized around Emmanuel Macron at the Élysée Palace this Monday, July 1, the day after the RN’s victory in the first round of the legislative elections.
Morose atmosphere at the Élysée Palace. On the occasion of a “tense” meeting with ministers organized the day after the first round of legislative elections, the head of state called for “not to be mistaken” in view of the second round, recalling that “the extreme right is on its way to the highest offices, no one else.
During this meeting, described to BFMTV as “tense” by two ministers this Monday July 1, Emmanuel Macron made an opening statement in an atmosphere described as “gloomy”. According to a participant who considered this meeting “useless”, the president went around the table asking two or three words from each member of the government present.
Misunderstandings about the line to follow
Emmanuel Macron ordered the majority candidates to withdraw for the second round in the constituencies where an Ensemble candidate would find himself in a tie against a socialist or environmentalist candidate, to the extent that these parties are part of the “republican arc ” in the words of the Head of State.
“Not a single voice from the extreme right,” Emmanuel Macron told his ministers. “We must remember that in 2017 and in 2022, on the left, everyone carried this message. Without that, you and your servant would not be here,” the president also declared to the ministers.
Regarding withdrawals, he nevertheless called on members of the majority to assess the situation “on a case-by-case basis” when the majority candidates were facing an LFI candidate.
A positioning which has not necessarily convinced the ministers facing him, since a participant in this meeting underlines: “There are disagreements on the line but few have expressed it”. Annoyed, a minister adds: “We say Macron, Macron, but when he is there everyone is silent. Even though many of us do not understand the line.”
According to our information, the head of state did not deliver a speech aimed at galvanizing the majority troops in view of the second round, but the meeting had more the appearance of a “talking group”, and nothing was discussed concerning the strategy to follow after the second round or a possible reshuffle.
Mathieu Coache, Léopold Audebert, Anne Saurat-Dubois and Thomas Soulié
