French President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday said he had called legislative elections in a bid to prevent the far right from winning the presidency in 2027 when his second and final term ends. He called on all French parties “able to say no to extremes” to unite ahead of the snap elections he announced after his centre-right alliance took a humiliating beating in the European Parliament vote on Sunday.
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“I hope that when the time comes, men and women of goodwill who will have been able to say no to the extremes will come together... Will put themselves in a position to build a shared, sincere project that is useful to the country,” Macron told a Paris press conference.
The president’s Renaissance party and its allies won less than half the 31-percent result of the Marine Le Pen's far-right National Rally (RN) party in Sunday’s European Parliament vote.
The crushing results prompted him to trigger surprise snap elections for June 30 and July 7 after two years of limping along with a minority government.
Read moreFrance’s Macron calls snap election in huge gamble after EU polls debacle
“The answer, in my eyes, could not come through changing the government or a coalition... Dissolving parliament was necessary,” Macron said.
‘Can’t remain indifferent’
He acknowledged voters’ “difficulty getting by, even when they’re working, very everyday difficulties” that had created “anger, sometimes resentment”.
People “feel that they aren’t listened to or respected... We can’t remain indifferent to all these messages,” he added.
Macron, who has three years left of his second presidential term, is hoping voters will band together to contain the far right in national elections in a way they did not do for the European vote.
“Things are simple today: we have unnatural alliances at both extremes ... who will not be able to implement any program," Macron said.
Macron that one reason he had called early legislative elections was to prevent the far right from winning the presidency in 2027 polls when he must stand down.
“I do not want to give the keys to power to the far right in 2027,” he told reporters.
‘Pact with the devil’
Macron especially lashed out at conservatives, whose leader Eric Ciotti on Tuesday announced an alliance with the RN, as well as a left-wing alliance including the hard-left France Unbowed (LFI). Macron described it as a “pact with the devil”.
The right had “in a few hours turned its back on the legacy of General (Charles) de Gaulle” as well as former presidents Jacques Chirac and Nicolas Sarkozy, he said.
Meanwhile, mainstream left parties had allied with an LFI he accused of “anti-Semitism” over its response to Palestinian militant group Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel and the war in Gaza.
Voters had a choice between “unholy alliances at the two extremes who agree on almost nothing except handing out jobs” versus his own bloc, with “a single vision of the country” both at home and abroad.
“We aren’t perfect... but we’ve got results,” he insisted, pointing to job creation, the energy transition and backing for Ukraine as high points.
In the event that the snap elections deal Macron’s camp another blow and hand the French far right an even larger majority in the National Assembly, the president reaffirmed that he has no plans to resign from his post.
“I want to nip that idea in the bud, [the chance of that happening] never existed,” he told journalists.
(FRANCE 24 with AP, AFP)
