Night has already fallen on Matignon, Sunday, June 30, when Gabriel Attal, with a grave expression, approaches the lectern. It is nearly 10 p.m., the first round of the legislative elections has just inflicted a stinging rout on the presidential camp. The scores are not as bad as imagined, but there is no longer any doubt. The Prime Minister is not unaware that he is living his last moments on Rue de Varenne. He who, at 35, could sometimes think about the opportunity he had been offered to occupy such high office so young, could give way to Marine Le Pen’s protégé, Jordan Bardella, 28. The National Rally (RN), largely ahead in the poll, is on the verge of power, close to winning a majority of seats in the National Assembly. The left-wing alliance of the New Popular Front (NFP), bringing together the Socialist Party, the ecologists, the Communist Party and La France Insoumise (LFI) rose to second place, leaving the Renaissance-MoDem-Horizons (Ensemble) coalition far behind.
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The failure was total for the President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron, who, on June 9, decided to dissolve the National Assembly in order, he said, to regain control. But it is Gabriel Attal who must find the right words to “prevent the worst from happening”. This evening “is not an evening like the others”, sighs the tenant of Matignon. The former Socialist Party candidate in 10e Hauts-de-Seine constituency, promises not to go there “by four paths”. After having fought fiercely against ” the extremes “castigating the RN but also the « chaos » what, according to him, the NFP program represents, dominated, he says, by LFI, the head of government now distinguishes between an enemy, the RN, and a political adversary, the NFP.
The battle of the second round is not the same as that of the first. Gabriel Attal now speaks of “moral duty” and hear “live up to French destiny”. “Our objective is clear, he said: prevent the National Rally from having an absolute majority in the second round, from dominating the National Assembly and therefore from governing the country with its disastrous project. » He continues, solemnly: “I say it with the force that the moment calls for in each of our voters. Not a single vote should go to the National Rally. In such circumstances, France deserves no hesitation. Never. » And he calls for candidates from the Ensemble coalition to withdraw when they are in third place in three-way races, in order to avoid the election of a far-right MP.
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