“I think we’re going to have an absolute majority.” In an interview with Le Télégramme, Marine Le Pen expressed her confidence in the results of the early legislative elections, a few days before the first round, and outlined the contours of what a cohabitation between Jordan Bardella, president of the RN, and Emmanuel Macron could be.
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“Chief of the armed forces, for the President, it is an honorary title since it is the Prime Minister who holds the purse strings,” warned the boss of RN deputies. Jordan (Bardella) has no intention of picking a fight with him, but he has set red lines. On Ukraine, the president will not be able to send troops.”
Emmanuel Macron opened the debate on sending Western soldiers to Ukraine in February, refusing to exclude the option. He was initially warmly welcomed before seeing allies, the Czech Republic, Poland and the Baltic States in particular, join him. Some observers considered that the question was no longer whether, but when, European soldiers will be deployed, welcoming a “breaking of the taboo” and pleading to maintain the “strategic ambiguity” which consists of hiding from one’s enemy what the ‘we are not ready to do.
During a presentation in Paris of his program in the context of the legislative elections, Jordan Bardella indicated on Monday that he was, on the contrary, making “the sending of (French) troops to Ukrainian soil” a “very clear red line”. “I do not intend to create the conditions or implement” such a project, he added, arguing that it was “(his) position” and “that of (his) political movement”.
“The President will not have the choice of Prime Minister”
If the National Rally won the legislative elections, a situation of cohabitation between a president and a government of different political colors would be put in place. During the three previous cohabitations of the Fifth Republic, the president had retained broad powers in matters of international policy and defense, in the name of an interpretation of the Constitution granting a “reserved domain” to the head of state.
Leading in the polls, which predict a relative or even absolute majority for her on the evening of July 7, Marine Le Pen expects several elected officials “in the first round.” “Last time, it was the low turnout that prevented me from being elected in the first round. This time, with the turnout that is expected, we could have 10 to 15 elected officials in the first round and there could be more than 300 three-way races,” she assures. And adds: “The President will not have the choice of Prime Minister.”
