France at the meeting of alliances against the extreme right five days before the legislative elections

The scene is set, the outcome very uncertain. France enters the final stretch of early legislative elections on Wednesday, after the closing of candidacies and the emergence of a fragile Republican front against a far right on the rise.

According to an AFP count, 214 withdrawals were recorded for the second round of voting, with only around a hundred triangular and quadrangular candidates (three or four qualified candidates) remaining out of the 311 qualified last Sunday.

Left-wing, Republican right-wing and centre-right parties tried to overcome reluctance and contradictions to beat the National Rally (RN) and its far-right allies on Sunday. If the transfer of votes is insufficient and if the RN’s momentum is confirmed, the party of Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella, 28, will form the first far-right government in France since the Second World War.

“Special broadcast”

On Wednesday evening, the private channel BFMTV is organising a “special programme”. Prime Minister Gabriel Attal (presidential camp), Jordan Bardella, and the head of the Ecologists Marine Tondelier (left) will each speak for an hour, in turn, as they have not agreed on a proper debate.

The French political scene has been holding its breath since the surprise dissolution of the National Assembly on June 9 by President Emmanuel Macron and the first round which placed the RN in the lead ahead of the left-wing alliance of the New Popular Front (NFP).

Most of the seat projections made in recent days indicate that the RN will struggle to reach an absolute majority (289 deputies). The hypothesis is reinforced by a three-bloc scenario (extreme right, left, Macronists), which could make the country ungovernable as it prepares to host the Olympic Games.

“Alliances of dishonor”

Jordan Bardella denounced “alliances of dishonour” and called on voters to give him the keys to power “in the face of the existential threat to the French nation” that he believes the left represents.

The figurehead of the extreme right, Marine Le Pen, is even considering forming a government with a relative majority of 270 deputies, supplemented with support, “for example, various right-wing, various left-wing, some LR” (Les Républicains, right).

On the other hand, there is little harmony between disparate forces, fiercely adversaries yesterday but condemned to reach an agreement. If they succeed, the Macronists, part of the left and some LR would have the difficult task of building a “grand coalition”, common in other European countries but foreign to French political traditions.

Marine Tondelier admitted that it would be necessary to “surely do things that no one has ever done before” in France. “The question is rather ‘for what purpose?’ than ‘with whom?'”, she added. “There will be no Macronist Prime Minister.”

Officials on the right and among the Macronists held a similar discourse, including the Prime Minister, evoking a “plural Assembly”, or the LR Xavier Bertrand calling for a “government of national revival”.

But the veneer does not seem thick behind deep mutual distrust. The Socialist Party fears seeing LR candidates who refused to withdraw choose “to form an alliance” with the RN. “The Republicans are ambiguous,” denounced Pierre Jouvet, its secretary general.

As for the radical left of La France insoumise (LFI), the most powerful of the left-wing parties but also the most divisive, it has ruled out participation in such a coalition. “The Insoumis will only govern to implement their program, nothing but the whole program,” said Manuel Bompard, one of their representatives.

Macron silenced

President Macron, for his part, has been silenced so as not to further undermine his own camp, which has not forgiven him for calling these elections. He has not spoken publicly since a statement in Brussels on Thursday and a letter published on Sunday.

His party, which enjoyed a relative majority in the outgoing Assembly, came only third with 20% of the vote in the first round and is preparing for a rout.

Expected at the NATO summit in Washington next week, the head of state already seems weakened on the international scene, which is scrutinizing Sunday’s result between attention and concern with regard to one of the pillars of the European Union and a power equipped with nuclear weapons.

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