Emmanuel Macron announced the dissolution of the National Assembly on Sunday, a political earthquake and an extremely dangerous race for his second five-year term, after the defeat of Jordan Bardella’s national rally and clear victory in European elections. France.
• Read more: Europeans in France: Far-right wins over President Macron’s party
• Read more: Redrawing the political landscape of the European Union
Thunder and a game of poker at the Élysée: In a stunning speech on election night, the head of state took the French by surprise.
As a new campaign begins, Emmanuel Macron brings his government to the Elysee on Sunday evening.
Assembly elections will be held on June 30 and July 7. The dissolution was a “serious, heavy decision” but “above all it was an act of faith”, he assured, while he may be forced to live together during the RN’s victory days before Paris. Olympic Games.
The dissolution was the sixth under the Fifth Republic. Such an event has happened only eight times in a hundred years.
The last dissolution, decided by Jacques Chirac in 1997, won a left majority of seats, leading to the appointment and coexistence of the Socialist Lionel Josban to Matignon.
Aiming for a new coalition, the RN is already in the early stages: “We are ready to use power if the French believe in us,” began three-time Elysee candidate Marine Le Pen.
His “foal” Jordan Bardella, keen on the “fierce negation” he inflicted on the head of state, is Matignon’s favorite, now 28 years old.
With 31.5 to 32% of the vote according to Ipsos and Ifop, the leader of the RN has indeed scored a major blow for Europeans, giving the Flame party its best score in a national election (excluding the second round).
This great victory, ten points higher than the already high score of 2019 (23.34%), will decisively contribute to the rise of power of the nationalist and sovereign bloc in the European Parliament, which is the main subject of votes at the twenty level. – Seven. In fact the RN is to send a committee of 30 elected officials out of the 81 given to France to the European Parliament.
The Macronist list of Valérie Hayer, an outgoing MEP little known to the general public, is having great difficulty counting more than 15: it was pushed between 14.5% and 14 .9% with less than half the votes of the RN. , though maintaining second place to the Socialists.
A new campaign begins
The presidential camp will play an even bigger role during the assembly elections, risking losing many delegates.
Stéphane Sejournay, secretary general of Revival, drew the first outlines for the upcoming campaign, telling AFP that the Macron camp would “candidate” the outgoing delegates “as part of the Republican Party sector” and wanted to “invest in a clear plan”. Presidential Majority… There is no guarantee that either the Socialist Party or the Republican Party will accept this outstretched hand.
On the left, the Socialists led by Raphaël Glucksmann (PS-Place publique) finished third with 14 to 14.2% of the vote, more than double their 2019 result.
“This dissolution requested by Jordan Bartella will remain a stain on the Macron presidency,” the MEP underlined.
But Manon Aubry’s surge in opinion polls in France’s insurgent, improving its score compared to previous Europeans (from 9.1% to 10.1%), risks complicating the equation for a new electoral coalition on the left that Neubs has been fighting for months. .
Participation is increasing
“Since there is an election, (this is an occasion) we have to reaffirm very loudly and very loudly that we are not afraid of the people when we rebel. It’s the opposite,” said Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who acts as an image to many of his potential partners.
Led by François-Xavier Bellamy, Les Républicains did not fare well at 7 to 7.2%, slightly above Marion Maréchal’s Reconquête list and the 5% needed to send representatives to the European Parliament.
In the 2019 election, Yannick Jadot narrowly escaped defeat with 13.5% of the vote on the Marie Toussaint-led environmentalist list, well short of the 5% rule. She lamented the “bitter defeat” for the environment “which opens the door to all dangers”.
In a sign of a campaign that has sparked more interest than expected, the voter turnout in the poll has increased to 52.5% compared to 2019, which had already increased to 50.12%.
Macron’s personal failure
The defeat was above all a personal defeat for the head of state, who had been campaigning until his televised interview on Thursday to mark the commemorations of the 1944 Allied landings.
Having recently suggested that he did not want to learn any national lessons from the European elections, he ended up doing the opposite.
The defeat in the election, which was presented as “status quo” for a country and continent that returned to war in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine two years ago and bloody conflicts in the Middle East, was significant.
The opposition didn’t give up on him on Sunday: while Eric Ciotti (LR) promised the results heralded the “end of Macronism”, PS Olivier Faure reckoned he had “disqualified himself”.
