Leftists and Macronists cling to ‘state of siege’ in France to avoid Le Pen’s absolute majority | International

A Republican Front, the French version of a cordon against the extreme right, was reconstructed this Tuesday to prevent Marine Le Pen’s National Regroupment (RN) from obtaining an absolute majority of seats and being able to form a government in this Sunday’s legislative elections. Despite everything it is not as strong as it was before, nor is it certain that it will achieve its objective. Le Pen, who has softened her program and image in the last few years, is no longer seen as the threat she used to be.

But in elections in which the extreme right is close to power, a large part of the political camp – not all, but the center and the left – has reacted. A total of 218 candidates for deputy from a list of 311 have abandoned running in the second round, when faced with a three-way election with three candidates in their districts. The aim is to concentrate votes in the best-placed areas to defeat the RN.

The final number of resignations, known at 6:00 p.m. this Tuesday, represents more than two-thirds of constituencies that had more than two eligible candidates in the second round. It is an indicator of the ability of parties to support rivals for a good they consider greater: defeating the extreme right. And it could complicate Le Pen’s objectives.

According to the count, there are 131 candidates from the left-wing New Popular Front alliance who have withdrawn to focus the vote on a centrist or moderate right-wing candidate. Le Monde. and 82 of the outgoing parliamentary majority, linked to President Emmanuel Macron, who is conceding defeat in favour of a left-wing candidate. They are fewer than on the left, but the number is substantial and answers Macron’s call for “a long-term, clearly democratic and republican union” against the extreme right.

In the Macronist camp, 16 candidates have preferred to continue campaigning, seeing how harmful their left-wing rival is for France as their far-right rival. On the left there are 7 who follow. But those who join the Union against the Far Right are not only of centrist or left-wing sensibility. In Macron’s camp there are 9 candidates from Horizons, a moderate right-wing party and a part of the presidential coalition.

A large proportion of candidates who exit do not give voting instructions. The effect of this Republican front on July 7 is unknown. There will be less than a hundred constituencies left in the triangular final in which no one will want to back down.

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In the first round of the legislative elections, held last Sunday, Le Pen’s RN won with 33.1%, followed by the New Popular Front with 28% and the Macronist Ensemble candidacy with 20%. The result has established the extreme right, which came in first in 296 constituencies, as the preferred force with the most representatives in the new National Assembly. But it does not guarantee reaching an absolute majority of 289 seats.

The Republican Front, if it works and voters concentrate their votes against RN candidates, could fail to achieve this absolute majority, which, according to Le Pen, is necessary to implement her program. In statements to the France Inter network, the leader of the RN claimed a majority: “We cannot accept going to government if we cannot act.” But he admitted that, on its own, his party could not reach 289 seats, and that he would then look for allies: “From the moment we have 270 deputies, we will need 19 more, and we will go to meet the others, and we will ask them if they are willing to participate in a new majority for a new policy.”

The use of the Republican Front began in the late 1980s at the height of Jean-Marie Le Pen’s National Front and has served to keep this party and its successor, the RN, from power. They helped the conservative Jacques Chirac defeat Le Pen Sr. in the 2002 presidential elections by gathering the vote of the left; and in 2017 and 2022, for the centrist Emmanuel Macron to defeat Le Pen’s daughter.

Over time it has weakened, as shown by presidential elections in which a moderate candidate faced a far-right candidate. In 2002, Chirac beat Le Pen with 82% of the vote. In 2017, Macron beat his daughter with 66%. Five years later, the lead was reduced and he won with 58.5%. Everything indicates that fewer and fewer French people are willing to vote for a candidate who is not theirs in order to stop the extreme right.

The decision on whether to leave these candidates with fewer options has sparked intense debate among the parties of the presidential bloc. Some, like Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, urged: “Not a single vote should go to the National Rally.” But other Macronists considered that it was necessary to consider “case by case” in each district whether to withdraw or retain a candidacy. Others, like Edouard Philippe, Macron’s former prime minister and aspiring to be his successor, declared: “No vote for RN candidates or France Insoumise candidates.” France Insoumise (LFI) is the radical left-wing party led by Jean-Luc Mélenchon.

Philippe, as head of Horizontes, with these words, authorized its candidates to withdraw when in the triumvirate there was, in addition to the RN, another socialist, environmentalist or communist candidate. But not from the LFI, accused by medium Playing into the hands of anti-Semitism and spreading chaos in parliament and on the streets. The minister of economy and finance, Bruno Le Maire, said: “The RN is a danger to the Republic. The LFI is a danger to the country.” This is also the case with the traditional right-wing party The Republicans, which is today split in two: its president, Eric Ciotti, has already stepped down during the campaign to form an alliance with Le Pen’s RN.

According to some estimates, the high number of resignations and the concentration of votes against the extreme right could prevent the RN from obtaining an absolute majority. This would be the success of the Republican Front, proof of this Poor iron health. But it is not clear that voters will follow the instructions of the parties they voted for in the first round. That is, the Republican Front agreed upon between the parties extends to voters.

“I no longer believe in the Republican Front,” declared Louis Alliot, leader of the RN and mayor of Perpignan. “I was elected alone in Perpignan against everyone on the left and the right. “Voters no longer respond to slogans.”

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