LFormer Minister Clément Beaune eliminated in Paris, in the first round; the Minister for Overseas Territories, Marie Guévenoux, third in Essonne, who is withdrawing; the outgoing MP Eric Woerth, who came 10 points behind his opponent from the National Rally (RN), in his stronghold of Oise; the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, in the lead in the North, but with less than 1,000 votes ahead of the far right… A painful litany for the presidential camp.
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The brutal dissolution of the National Assembly, decided by Emmanuel Macron on June 9, resulted in the dissolution of his own majority which, having come third behind the RN and the New Popular Front, now finds itself threatened with near-wiping out. “The decision to dissolve the National Assembly has, in effect, put an end to the political landscape that resulted from the 2017 presidential election”summed up the former Prime Minister Edouard Philippe, who, ten days earlier, had criticized the President of the Republic for having ” kill “ the majority.
Beyond the severe electoral defeat inflicted on the presidential camp, further reinforced by the high participation (66.7%), it is macronism, in its essence, which self-dissolved on Sunday. His original promise – that the French would not have “no more reason to vote for the extremes” – is indeed swept aside, a dark stain on its record: on Sunday, Marine Le Pen’s party and her allies obtained more than 10.5 million votes, almost four times more than its score in the 2017 legislative elections (3 million votes).
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Seven years ago, the young candidate of En Marche! also intended to overcome the right-left divide and capitalize on the weakening of the old parties, which he described as useless rentiers, responsible for the country’s deadlocks. In the evening of this failed dissolution, Emmanuel Macron not only sees the return of the old, radicalized divide, but he also depends on party agreements and partisan withdrawals to save a certain number of his candidates.
Unable to give clear instructions
The President of the Republic has, moreover, so weakened the right, which he has dismembered and humiliated, that he will no longer be able to rely on it in the future Assembly. He therefore finds himself forced to turn to the left, towards which he has nevertheless multiplied his criticisms during the campaign, to form a possible “republican coalition”if the RN did not obtain an absolute majority on July 7, notably thanks to this republican front, so often given up for dead by the presidential camp.
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