Elections in France: demonstrations against the far right and tensions on the left

Tens of thousands of people are marching in France on Saturday against the far right, in a position of strength ahead of the legislative elections called by President Emmanuel Macron while the new left-wing coalition is already experiencing the first cracks.

Between 300,000 and 350,000 demonstrators are expected in France for a popular tidal wave against a new victory of the National Rally (RN) on June 30 and July 7, after its triumph on Sunday in the European elections, which led the Head of State to dissolve the National Assembly.

I thought I was never going to see the far right come to power, and now it can happensaid Florence David, a 60-year-old trainer demonstrating in Paris, where the procession set off around 2 p.m.

RN really scares me”,”text”:”The RN really scares me”}}”>THE RN really scares me, testifies in Clermont-Ferrand Ariane Guinamand, a 22-year-old student. In Reims, Mélodie, 20, feels threatened inasmuch as woman and lesbian.

Around 200 demonstrations are planned in total in the country during the weekend, two weeks before legislative elections which are causing a chaotic recomposition of political life in France.

We are potentially in a tipping point for democracysaid Marylise Léon, the head of the CFDTone of the five unions which called for mobilization.

Turmoil on the French political scene

The dissolution of the National Assembly, decided on Sunday by President Emmanuel Macron after the debacle of his camp in the European elections, continues to cause political tremors.

To block the far right, the main left-wing parties, from France Insoumise (LFI) to the Socialists and the Ecologists, have hastily managed to form an alliance.

However, their coalition, called the New Popular Front, experienced its first tensions on Saturday after the decision to LFI not to reinvest several figures opposed to the party leader, Jean-Luc Mélenchon.

The elected officials sidelined denounced a purge and accused Mr. Mélenchon of settle accounts.

Others deplored that Adrien Quatennens, close to this leader of the radical left, was reinvested even though he had been sentenced in 2022 to four months of suspended imprisonment for domestic violence.

Extremely shocked by this purge, the boss of the Ecologists, Marine Tondelier, summoned the authorities of her party. The boss of the socialists, Olivier Faure, for his part said he judged scandalous L’eviction deputies of LFI on the X network.

Supportive of the union of the left, the former socialist president of the Republic François Hollande (2012-2017) also created a surprise by announcing his candidacy for the legislative elections in Corrèze. The situation is serioushe justified.

President Macron, who is attending a G7 summit in Italy and a summit on Ukraine in Switzerland this weekend, called the differences on the left a spectacle of great inconsistency.

We’re crazy, it’s not serious.

Division at the rendezvous

The program of the New Popular Front includes a repeal of the pension reform carried out under the Macron presidency, a minimum monthly salary of 1,600 euros net (approximately 2,350 Canadian dollars) as well as the fight against anti-Semitism and the condemnation of Hamas terrorist massacres in Israel, two subjects which have poisoned relations on the left.

The president of the National Rally, Jordan Bardella, who, at 28, is aiming for the post of prime minister, said he believes that only two political groups will be able to compose a government : hers, favorite in the polls, and this new union of the left.

His party is currently leading the way in opinion polls. A survey Opinionway published on Saturday credits him with 33% of voting intentions, ahead of the New Popular Front (25%) and the presidential majority (20%).

The Republican right has been torn apart since the call by the president of the Republicans, Éric Ciotti, to ally with the RN. On Friday, the Paris court caused yet another twist by invalidating his exclusion.

As Euro football kicked off Friday evening in Germany, France team striker Marcus Thuram called for “fighting so that the RN does not pass”, a rare position for a high-level athlete.

On Saturday, and without referring specifically to France, the head of the Italian government Giorgia Meloni, whose country hosted the G7 Summit, said she hoped that Europe would take into account the message sent to the European elections, marked by a surge from the far right.

European citizens demand pragmatism, a less ideological approach on various major issuesdeclared the far-right leader.