Macron Continues His Flight-Forward Trip, This Time Electorally
Despite all the hype in France around the commemoration of the 80th anniversary of D-day, the Renaissance party of President Macron could not avoid a stunning disavowal of his policy in the June 9 European Parliament elections. As expected, the party of Marine Le Pen, the National Rally, came in at over 31%, more than double the score of Renaissance (14.6%). But on the left wing as well, his party only surpassed the Socialist Party by 0.8%,with La France Insoumise at 9.9% and the Greens reduced to 5.5%. The abstention rate was higher than all, at 49%. In the months preceding the vote, the popularity of the French President was already abysmal, principally because of his economic policies, but also due to his submission to the “rules-based order” and Brussels.
While the European elections have traditionally favored a “protest vote” in France, Emmanuel Macron nonetheless announced within hours of the results that the National Assembly would be dissolved, and new elections held on June 30 and July 7. Whatever the outcome of those elections turns out to be, Emmanuel Macron can remain President until the end of his term, in April 2027. Although it may still seem unlikely now, the Rassemblement National (RN) could become the strongest party in the national parliament, at which point its chairman Jordan Bardella could become Prime Minister. Note that contrary to positions taken by Le Pen’s party in the past, Bardella has insisted that he is not in favor of France leaving NATO or the euro, much less the European Union.
As Jacques Cheminade pointed out in a tweet on June 9, the lead candidate of the RN, Jordan Bardella was the first to demand new legislative elections, and then Emmanuel Macron announced them. This can lead to two possibilities, Cheminade wrote, either a “mutually destructive cohabitation” and/or “an even more federalist orientation with a ‘melonization’of France. The respect with which Macron handled Bardella during the Saint Denis meetings, and which, as Bardella himself recognized, gave his campaign credibility, is worth thinking about. As for real sovereignists, they should finally draw the lesson of what has happened, and come together above and beyond personal questions and labels. On the basis of a project to free France from the financial and cultural occupation forces, and internationally, to campaign for a new mutual security and development architecture to break with the weapons build-up oligarchy that is leading us to a Third World War.”
