Voting instructions diverge within the presidential camp. Some clearly call for beating the far right in the second round of the legislative elections, even if it means voting for rebels. Others advocate the latter on a case-by-case basis. And some refuse to vote for either LFI or the RN.
It’s not easy to find your way around. Since the first round of the legislative elections delivered its verdict this Sunday, June 30, with the National Rally in the lead, the different figures in the presidential camp have not been saying exactly the same thing about the strategy to adopt.
Those who called for a blockade of the far right during Emmanuel Macron’s two elections to the presidency of the Republic vary in their positions, between neither RN nor LFI, on a case-by-case basis, and clear opposition to the far right.
The President of the Republic himself left the door open in his reaction on Sunday, calling for a “broad, clearly democratic and republican gathering” against the National Rally. Without it being really known who exactly is part of this vast group, especially since the presidential camp has taken care for months to exclude both LFI and the RN from the “republican field”.
Clarification later in the evening: the president asked his teams on Sunday evening to study each constituency to find alliances, including with some rebels, to block the RN, BFMTV learned. The goal being to do it “case by case” according to the profiles.
Nothing is very clear at the time of writing. Which also reinforces the questions about the effect of the voting instructions, especially since they are less followed now. The Macronist fog, already largely present on Sunday, is still there this Monday. BFMTV.com takes stock of the reactions of one and all.
• Clear call to vote against the extreme right
Some have spoken out bluntly, calling for a stand against the far right, even if it means voting for rebels. Among them: Clément Beaune, former Minister of Transport often presented as the supporter of a left wing of the outgoing majority.
The man who failed to get re-elected in Paris didn’t mince his words this Monday on France Info:
“The real threat to the country is not LFI, it is the RN which will perhaps have a majority,” said the former advisor to Emmanuel Macron, repeating what is far from being obvious in his party.
“We must not put an equal sign between the National Rally and any other political party.”
The same story came from Rima Abdul-Malak, former Minister of Culture, who was also ousted from the government in January after, like Clément Beaune, making her disagreement with the immigration law known. The latter sent a message to her “friends in the presidential majority” on X, writing:
“The New Popular Front is not just LFI and LFI is not just Mélenchon. The breakthrough is now.”
Roland Lescure himself issued a press release this Sunday. While pointing out “unsavoury personalities” at LFI, the Minister of Industry highlights “the real danger for France” namely “an absolute majority for the National Rally” at the end of the second round of the legislative elections.
In this sense, he “calls on all voters to block the extreme right without hesitation by voting for the alternative candidate best placed in the first round.”
• Vote for certain rebels but decide on a case-by-case basis
Other Macronists did not go that far, starting with Gabriel Attal. The Prime Minister first hammered home that “not a single vote should go to the extreme right”, from the Hôtel de Matignon on Sunday.
But at the same time, he delivered a formula that could, in his mind, at least exclude some rebels. That of calling for the “withdrawal of our candidates, whose maintenance in third position would have led to the election of a National Rally MP over another candidate who defends, like us, the values of the Republic.”
Next comes Yaël Braun-Pivet. The outgoing president of the National Assembly presented herself as “someone with nuance” on Monday, July 1st on BFMTV-RMC, assuming to deal “case by case”. In other words, the outgoing MP for Yvelines has “no difficulty” in calling for a vote for communists, socialists or environmentalists against the extreme right.
On the other hand, regarding the rebellious candidates, she makes a “distinguo”. To illustrate her point, Yaël Braun-Pivet cited the rebellious “Caroline Fiat and David Guiraud”, calling one a “great republican” and accusing the other of not “adhering[r] to the values of the Republic” and “expresses[r] anti-Semitic ideas.”
François Bayrou advocated a similar speech on TF1 on Sunday, calling for “looking constituency by constituency”. “I have a problem with LFI, not with François Ruffin, who has clearly and even violently distanced himself from Mélenchon”, said the MoDem leader and mayor of Pau.
There remain those who appear to be supporters of neither LFI nor RN. This is the case of Édouard Philippe. The former Prime Minister thus judged that “no vote should be cast on the candidates of the National Rally, nor on those of La France Insoumise with whom we diverge not only on programs, but on fundamental values.”
Similar statements from Aurore Bergé. “My opponent has always been the National Rally, but if you ask me my personal position, I will never call for a vote for La France Insoumise and that is very clear,” declared the Minister for Equality between Men and Women on France 2 on Sunday.
The next day, it was Bruno Le Maire who stuck to this speech, provoking the anger and emotion of the national secretary of the Ecologists, Marine Tondelier. He also called for a vote for the PS, PCF or Greens against the extreme right.
However, “I am not voting for La France Insoumise,” he said on France Inter, denouncing in particular “positions which are against the French nation,” “anti-Semitism” and “violence.”
