French legislatures | Last day of campaign, Macron promises clear voting instructions

(Paris) French President Emmanuel Macron has promised to give clear voting instructions in the event of a duel in the second round of the legislative elections between the left and the far-right National Rally (RN) party, presented as the big favorite in the election.

As the campaign ends Friday at midnight (6 p.m. Eastern time), all the polls give a very comfortable lead to the RN, credited with 36 to 37% of voting intentions and which is thus well ahead of the left (28 to 29%) while the outgoing majority is relegated to third place (20% to 21%).

RN leader Jordan Bardella, 28, will nevertheless have to attract more voters if he wants to obtain an absolute majority in the National Assembly at the end of the second round on July 7, a condition he himself set for accepting the post of prime minister.

On Thursday evening, on the sidelines of a European summit in Brussels, Emmanuel Macron promised “great clarity” in the voting instructions for the second round in the event of a duel between the RN and the left.

And, while the executive has in recent weeks put the RN and La France Insoumise (LFI, radical left) on an equal footing “and those who follow them” – to designate the New Popular Front (NPF), a left-wing coalition which also includes the Socialist Party, the ecologists and the Communist Party – Mr. Macron seemed to qualify this position on Thursday evening in Brussels.

The socialist mayor of Lille (North) and former minister Martine Aubry challenged him on X: “You cannot refuse the republican withdrawal which allowed you to be elected for your 2 terms. You are deliberately running the risk of an absolute majority for the RN.”

“I obviously want to prevent the extremes, and in particular the extreme right, from winning these elections,” Prime Minister Gabriel Attal said on Friday on BFMTV/RMC media.

Strong participation expected

Mr. Macron also denounced the “arrogance” of the RN, which intends to impose a harsh cohabitation on him in the event of victory and has “already divided up” all the government posts.

The party figure Marine Le Pen has in fact recently assured that the function of “head of the armed forces” of the President of the Republic was only a simple “honorary title”. From this prerogative of head of the Armed Forces, enshrined in the Constitution, arises the powers in matters of foreign policy and defense that the presidents have retained during previous cohabitations.

On Friday, she also indicated that if Jordan Bardella were to become prime minister, he would oppose the reappointment of Thierry Breton as European commissioner, announced on Thursday by Emmanuel Macron to his partners.

A high turnout, which could be the highest in 25 years, is expected on Sunday: nearly two out of three voters plan to vote, compared to less than one in two in the 2022 legislative elections.

With the predictable consequence, “certainly some elected officials from the first round”, predicted to AFP the deputy general director of Ipsos Brice Teinturier, but also “a lot of triangulars”, “200 to 240”, according to the pollster.

The question of “republican withdrawal” in the face of the extreme right is therefore at the heart of the issues. An option defended by the New Popular Front, where environmentalists, socialists and communists have made it known that their candidates who came in third place would withdraw.

“Uninhibited racism”

On the left, the founder of LFI, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, a virulent tribune who remains a scarecrow for his adversaries, indicated on Thursday that he does not intend to be “wiped off the map”. Including by his allies who do not want to see him become prime minister in the event of victory, the president of the Socialist Party Olivier Faure estimating that “a quiet force” will be needed at the head of the French government during a televised debate Thursday evening .

Gabriel Attal continued to dish out blows during this tense debate in which Jordan Bardella also participated. He notably accused the RN president of supporting “a hundred candidates” who had made “racist, anti-Semitic and homophobic” remarks. His entourage distributed “a map of shame” where we find the controversial remarks of 112 RN candidates.

Among them, the outgoing MP Roger Chudeau, who considered that a member of the government could not be binational because this posed a “problem of dual loyalty”, taking the example of the former socialist Minister of Education Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, of Moroccan origin, whose nomination was “a mistake”, he declared.

These remarks have sparked a lively controversy. “We must fight with force and we must be outraged by these things,” declared Emmanuel Macron. For the outgoing president of the Assembly, Yaël Braun-Pivet, the party is showing its “true face”, that of “uninhibited racism”.

This “personal opinion” from Roger Chudeau is “totally contrary to the RN project,” assured Marine Le Pen on Friday.