It is one of the hottest weeks in decades in Paris. And at least this time not so much from a meteorological point of view. The first round of the French legislative elections has given an unequivocal result: Marine Le Pen’s Rassemblement National won with 33%, followed by the left-wing coalition, the New Popular Front, at 28%, and Macron’s centrists at 21%. In other words, a clear affirmation of the underdog from beyond the Alps, and a defeat for the frigid President. This is as far as the first half is concerned, but as in a football match we have to wait until the ninetieth minute to know the final result, and assign the majority of the next Legislative Assembly.
What will emerge after the July 7 run-off elections (only 76 of the 577 constituencies had an election in the first round). To say that the victory of Bardella’s right is still uncertain or can in any case be scaled down. Just like the fate of the Popular Front and the centrists hanging on those 499 seats where the French will choose their deputies on Sunday. An uncertainty that has ignited the fuse, with accusations and counter-accusations between Marine Le Pen and President Emmanuel Macron. The leader of Rassemblement National began by fearing a sort of “administrative coup” carried out by the Elysée. “It seems that the president is thinking of appointing tomorrow, that is, 4 days before the second round, the director general of the national police, who should have remained in office until the end of the Olympics, and the director of the national gendarmerie,” Le Pen told France Inter.
According to the RN leader, the “objective” of the hasty appointments would be “to prevent Jordan Bardella from governing the country as he would like” if the RN wins the majority in the legislative runoff on Sunday. “For people who give lessons in democracy to the entire Earth, it is at least surprising to act in this way,” concluded Marine.
The Elysée’s response arrived shortly after: “For 66 years, there have been appointments and changes every week, especially in the summer, regardless of political circumstances.” And this is not expected to change “in the coming months,” they added at the Elysée. It’s just that never before has the vote in Paris been as important, and moreover on several levels, the purely national one, the right has never been so close to triumph, in addition to the continental one, with the European Parliament that will soon be called upon to confirm the status quo of the EU.
What will happen in Brussels on July 18, if the right were to come to power in France? In the meantime, the countermeasure adopted by the gauche and Ensamble is called abstention. That is, in those constituencies where three candidates made it to the second round (12.15% was enough to access), one of the two resigns in favor of the one who was better placed in the first round. According to Le Monde’s count, the abstentions in an anti-RN function have reached 208. Among these, that of the minister with responsibility for Communities and the countryside, Dominique Faure, who wanted to stay in the race in a constituency where a socialist is leading ahead of a candidate from Le Pen. The data from the French newspaper indicates that, of the 208 “désistements”, 127 are by candidates from the gauche and 75 from the majority linked to Emmanuel Macron. A decision to abstain that has produced endless divisions, especially on the President’s side.
In a late-night meeting at the Elysée, several ministers contested the choice of host. The stumbling block is Jean-Luc Mélenchon, leader of France Insoumise, and considered, not unjustly, anti-Semitic, pro-Hamas and pro-Putin.
To make things clear, one, Mélenchon, who in the square convened by the left after the vote, chose to be escorted by one of his most controversial deputies, the French-Palestinian jurist Rima Hassan, who showed up wearing a keffiyeh, with the inevitable trail of controversy. “How will our moderate voters vote for Jean Luc?”, Macron’s ministers asked themselves the other night. 96 hours to find out, meanwhile Paris continues to “burn”.
#desperate #move #runoffs #Tempo
2024-07-05 12:57:10