He called the snap vote, after a disastrous defeat at the hands of the far-right in June's European election. | Pool Photo by Kay Nietfeld via Getty Images
PARIS — Emmanuel Macron faces a bitterly painful choice: Throw everything he’s got at stopping the far right, or try to save what remains of his once-dominant movement before it dies.
For the 46-year-old leader of France, Sunday’s first-round parliamentary election was
a humiliation every bit as personal as his stunning rise to the presidency as a fresh-faced outsider seven years ago.
He called the snap vote, after a disastrous defeat at the hands of the far right in June’s European election, with one aim in mind: to halt France’s lurch to the extremes in its tracks. He achieved the opposite.
Europe’s second-biggest economy and the EU’s only nuclear-armed power is now closer than ever before to ushering in a far-right government for the first time, after Marine Le Pen’s National Rally (RN) took a dramatic lead in the first stage of voting.
If the second-round vote on July 7 delivers a parliamentary majority for the National Rally — and forecasts suggest it’s possible — France will be in uncharted waters: The country would be governed, at least in part, by politicians who made their names sympathizing with Vladimir Putin while vowing to rip up the European Union, wage war on migration and quit NATO.
Although Le Pen’s party has softened some of its sharper-edged positions, it remains deeply skeptical of Western mainstream political positions. A victory in this election would provide a powerful boost to her chances of winning the French presidency in 2027.
More at
https://www.politico.eu/article/fra...l-macron-marine-le-pen-europe-national-rally/