Macron: The French president has taken a big risk by calling parliamentary elections after his crushing defeat in the European elections
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- Author, Hugh Schofield
- Role, BBC News correspondent, Paris
French President Emmanuel Macron has called early parliamentary elections later this month after his rival Marine Le Pen’s party won a landslide victory in European Parliament elections.
Le Pen’s far-right force The National Group reached 31.4% of the votesWhile the Renaissance, Macron’s liberal coalition stands at 14.6% And the Social Democrats, at 13.8% according to estimates this Monday, are waiting to know the final result.
Announcing the dissolution of parliament this Sunday, the president announced that there would be two rounds of elections 30 June and 7 JulyA few weeks before the Paris Olympic Games.
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“I heard your message”
Macron announced the unexpected decision in a televised speech from the Elysee Palace, an hour after voting stations closed and exit polls for the European elections in France were announced.
The announcement came shortly after the leader of the national group, Jordan Bardella, 28 years oldOpenly asked the President to call parliamentary elections.
“I have heard your message,” the president told French voters. I won’t let it go without answering.”
“France needs a clear majority in peace and harmony,” he said, adding that it could not abandon itself to the advance of the extreme right “across the continent.”
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Two years into his second term as President, Macron does not have a majority In the French parliament and, although in theory European elections have no connection to national politics, they decided that continuing to govern without giving voters a chance to have their say would put too much strain on the system.
The upcoming parliamentary elections do not threaten Macron’s position, as they are independent of the presidential elections and the French leader still has three years left in his term.
Le Pen, who was defeated twice by Macron in presidential elections, immediately reacted to the electoral progress by assuring that her party was “ready to exercise power, Ready to end mass immigration,
A risky choice
The call for an early election is a big surprise for the country and a big risk for the president I could have reacted differently,
He could have gone further, explaining the far right’s spectacular victory as a European aberration that would be corrected in national elections.
Or he could hope that the impending European football championship in Germany and, above all, the Olympic Games in Paris would keep people away from politics for a few months.
No doubt many pundits in Paris thought he would concede defeat to his party.
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Others believe the president saw the coming debacle and planned his response in advance.
Therefore, the election results were an almost exact replica of the elections He would have had plenty of time to consider his options,
The problem is that it is constant.
Without a majority, getting any bill approved by the National Assembly is a difficult task.
And, now that the majority of the country is clearly against them, any new legislation – for example, the next budget – could be met with strong backlash.
That is why he has opted for “clarity”: if the National Group has the votes, he believes they should be given the opportunity to govern.
Obviously, the president He hopes his Renaissance Party can rise again In the elections on June 30 and July 7, or that other parties will also enter the fray.
But you have to understand that it is possible that the National Group will have another victory. It may not be as overwhelming as Sunday’s, but it will be significant enough to become the majority party in the French parliament.
This could also clear the way for Marine Le Pen or Jordan Bardella to become prime minister.
As French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire warned, the upcoming French parliamentary elections could have “the most serious consequences” in the country’s modern history.
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