‘Hazardous risk’: Macron takes ‘opponents by surprise’, giving birth to left-wing Popular Front
there joining me on the set is Damian l a political scientist and researcher from paris’s sbon University is it time for the left to already be toasting do we really have confidence that this Alliance will Faire better than the previous one that we had seen seven months ago that collapsed the npus or n depending on how you pronounce it well the fact that the lifting parties uh succeeded to to reach this Alliance uh prove the gravity of the situation and the danger that the far right is right now for for the the political uh life and uh what is quite different with this new alliance is that uh the the the hard left the France and B FR SM is not as dominant as it was before because the European elections they have more seats yes they are more seats but they they do they no longer have the majority of the seats and so the the greens and the Socialists the two of them are the majority with the tourament so and is clearly no longer the the leading candidate for prime minister he’s not as obious candidate as he was in 2022 because he he has appeared to be a far far more divisive figure and he is not not as consensual as it could be uh in 2022 how indicative is this of the French public on the one hand we have the far-right national rally if you listen to this uh popular front they’re the only viable alternative but as you mention there’s a far-left element within there is the majority of the French public split between these two people in the presidential election there was a clear domination of uh three candidates that was Emanuel macron Marin Len for far right and Je for the left and even if the left is more diverse now and more balance between the its more radical elements and its more moderate uh greens and and socialists uh it is clear that the the the block of the far right and the left wing are now in the European elections where the dominant forces uh because the the macron Coalition has clearly declined in in this election so now the it seems likely that the the left wing and the far right are indeed going to be the the two dominant forces but the the macron center is going to try to uh uh to to to interfere in this in this D and of course in France we have that to round voting system where we can sometimes see some surprises in round one only to perhaps be corrected in round two if you will correct it in the sense that like maybe people vote for the preference in round one trying to get leaders to shift their politics for round two how do you think this plays out in round one well what is interesting here is that this majority system for a long time has has been an obstacle for the far right to to have more seats in Parliament but maybe we we have reached the point that it’s going to boost the the election of more uh far right members in National Assembly what is going to be very very difficult for the the macron candidates for the presidential Coalition candidate is precisely to reach the second TR because as we can see in the European elections uh they they would have difficulty to uh to to to regist against to to be first or second in the majority of constituencies so at this point of course things can evolve but at this point uh we can expect that the majority of second runs will be between uh far right and the the left wing coalitions and maybe in some uh in some constituencies the macron will try to to be in in this suion but it’s going to be more difficult for them this time so so did macron misplay his hand here well emanu macron clearly uh Ops to um to to to provoke uh rally run the flag effect and to uh to take his opponents by surprise but probably he did not expect the left to to to achieve a new alliance like that so yes it is clear that the president has taken very aous risk all right Damian thank you very much for your time Damian L from sbone University thank you thank you
France’s leftwing parties want to lower the retirement age, link salaries to inflation and introduce a wealth tax for the rich, leaders of a newly agreed alliance that spans from the hard left to the Socialists and Greens said on Friday. The parties set aside differences to strike a deal late on Thursday ahead of a parliamentary election that President Emmanuel Macron unexpectedly called for June 30 and July 7 after his centrist party suffered a bruising defeat in Sunday’s European Parliament elections. For in-depth analysis on the unprecedented snap elections that could lead to a seismic shift in France’s political landscape, FRANCE 24’s William Hilderbrandt is joined by Damien Lecomte, Research Associate and Temporary Lecturer at University of Paris I: Panthéon-Sorbonne.
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1 comment
I would say to the good people of France, look what the extreme right wing has done to England. It's crazy that there is anyone else in Europe even contemplating pushing their country further to the right. Don't do it. And I'm sending this from Scotland.