2024 legislative elections: what will the presidential camp do in the event of a three-way race?

The President of the Republic lost his crazy bet and put the country at risk of the arrival of the far right in Matignon. Hardly, the candidates labeled Together! (previously Renaissance) gathered 20.04% of the votes. From Sunday evening, from the Head of State to the Prime Minister via the various leaders of the allied parties of the presidential camp, the positions taken on the attitude to adopt during the second round in the event of a triangular vote have multiplied.

Emmanuel Macron’s unclear instructions and disagreements within his party

As soon as the first results were known, Emmanuel Macron called for a “large clearly Democratic and Republican gathering for the second round”, without specifying its contours. His Prime Minister was a little clearer around 10 p.m. by indicating that “The lesson of tonight is that the extreme right is on the verge of power.” et “so our objective is clear: to prevent the National Rally from having an absolute majority in the second round.” Gabriel Attal called on the “withdrawal of our candidates whose retention in third position would have resulted in the election of a National Rally deputy over another candidate who, like us, defends the values ​​of the Republic”. If the tenant of Matignon considers that the New Popular Front can no longer have an absolute majority and affirms that the issue is to “deprive the extreme right”does this include withdrawing from the three-way races where France Insoumise is ahead of the Macronist candidate?

Nothing is less certain at the moment. A press release from the Renaissance party, published Sunday evening, indicates that its candidates who came in 3rd position will withdraw “for the benefit of candidates capable of beating the National Rally and with whom we share the essential: the values ​​of the Republic”. Certainly, Minister Roland Lescure called, for example, to vote ” without hesitation “ pour “alternative candidates to the RN” in these configurations, but her colleague Aurore Bergé affirmed that she would never vote or call for withdrawal in favor of the FI. Likewise, the Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire, for his part, called on Monday to vote for “the social democratic camp” which does not include FI. The outgoing President of the Assembly Yaël Braun-Pivet also affirmed that” never ” she does not “could call” to vote for “a number of candidates” who does not “share” not the values ​​of the former majority.

The “neither-nor” of Édouard Philippe (Horizons)

This is also the case of the boss of the Horizons party, former prime minister Édouard Philippe. “No voice” should not “to support the candidates of the National Rally, nor those of France Insoumise”, he declared, continuing the deadly strategy initiated by Emmanuel Macron before the first round of sending the left and the far right back to back, even if it meant allowing the latter to access Matignon. “Consistent with this position, I will propose to the Horizons candidates who came third, who could, by their presence in the second round, without hope of victory, favor the election of a candidate from the extremes, to withdraw in favor of the candidates, the parties with which we share the same democratic and republican demands “, he added.

The “case by case” of the Modem and the UDI

“It is a sanction vote which presents a threat for many French people. And it is this threat that we must ward off, that we must reverse in the next eight days.” said François Bayrou, the president of Modem, on TF1. “The candidates who are Democrats and Republicans must rally together and form alliances. There are candidates on the left and on the LR side whose values ​​are the same. Many French people would be totally desperate to find a choice between RN and LFI. We have to look at constituency by constituency,” he clarified. A position shared by the president of the UDI Hervé Marseille who also mentioned a case-by-case examination, depending on profiles and constituencies.

First withdrawals and a summit meeting

In this context, having come in third place, the minister-candidates Sabrina Agresti-Roubache and Marie Guévenoux chose to withdraw in order to defeat the RN. In the Somme, the Ensemble candidate, Albane Branlant, also withdrew in favor of the rebellious François Ruffin, in a runoff against an RN. I make a difference between political adversaries and enemies of the Republic,” she declared.

But, certain candidates from the ex-majority, although coming third, refuse to withdraw. To discuss the central issue of withdrawals, the head of state summoned his ministers to the Élysée at 12 p.m. They have until Tuesday 6 p.m. to avoid the dishonor of having opened the doors of Matignon to the far right.