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2022 FRENCH PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION

Macron warns of Brexit-like shock in French election rally

French president Emmanuel Macron dangled the possibility of a Brexit-like debacle in his campaign rally on Saturday, ahead of the first round of presidential election voting.

Published: 3 April 2022 11:26 CEST
Macron warns of Brexit-like shock in French election rally
French President and liberal party La Republique en Marche (LREM) candidate for re-election Emmanuel Macron greets his supporters during his first campaign meeting at the Paris La Defense Arena, in Nanterre, on the outskirts of Paris, on April 2, 2022. (Photo by Thomas COEX / AFP)

With just a week to go until the first round of elections on April 10th, Macron and his team pulled out all the stops to rouse voters and boost his bid to remain as France’s president in what’s been described as a ‘rockstar’ campaign rally by international media.

Arriving to fireworks and fist-bumps, Macron addressed a crowd of around 30,000 in Paris’s La Défense Arena – a vast venue that usually hosts top-level rugby and rock concerts.

“Look at what happened with Brexit, and so many other elections: what looked improbable actually happened,” Macron told supporters. “Nothing is impossible.”

“The danger of extremism has reached new heights because, in recent months and years, hatred, alternative truths have been normalised. We have got used to see on TV shows antisemitic and racist authors,” he added.

Macron worked to pull back a share of voters in what was his first rally on Saturday, late in the campaign due to being distracted by the war in Ukraine.

In the meantime, far-right Marine LePen has been gaining ground and making a comeback in the polls, tightening the race and threatening to take what was believed to be Macron’s unassailable lead.

READ ALSO: OPINION Growing apathy in France could yet produce a shock election result

The latest Elabe poll published Saturday showed Le Pen garnering 47 percent of the vote in a second-round run-off against Macron, who was projected to win 53 percent.

Allowing for a margin of error in the poll, this could put Le Pen in the zone to snatch victory.

Although Macron is still just about in the lead, he’s lost some ground in the polls due to his late campaign efforts and his policies on increasing the state pension age to 65.

In his two-hour rally speech on Saturday, Macron touched on topics such as job creation in the healthcare system in a bid to attract centre-left voters, who the polls have suggested may abstain from voting.

And he confirmed his plans to raise the retirement age: “I am not hiding the fact that we will have to work more,” according to a Reuters report.

Referring to opponents such as LePen and far-left candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon, he said, “Don’t believe those who say they will cut the retirement age to 60 or 62 and that everything will be alright. That’s not true.”

However, he did promise to raise the minimum pension to around €1,100 per month if you worked full time, up from around €700 now.

Other campaign promises included a tax-free bonus worth €6,000 for employees to mitigate against the surging cost of food and energy bills due to war in Ukraine.

Macron supporters chanted for the current President’s re-election, waiving the French tricolour flag while shouting, “Macron, president! One, two, five more years!”

But will it be enough to maintain his narrow lead in the polls?

“Of course Marine Le Pen can win,” Macron’s former prime minister Edouard Philippe warned in an interview with the Le Parisien daily posted online Thursday.

READ ALSO: VIDEO: The 12 French presidential candidates’ campaign films

Philippe, who is backing Macron, added that “if she wins, believe me, things will be seriously different for the country… Her programme is dangerous.”

Le Pen, who lost to Macron in the 2017 polls run-off, has sought to moderate her image in the last half decade in a process helped by the emergence of Eric Zemmour as a fellow candidate in the far-right.

Meanwhile, the left’s main hope is the far-left candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon who most polls project coming in third place but believes he has a chance of making a run-off.

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READER QUESTION

Reader question: Can I approach my French deputé for help? 

If you live in France you will have a local representative in parliament - but can you approach them for help if you have a problem? Here's how the député system works.

Published: 24 May 2024 15:49 CEST
Reader question: Can I approach my French deputé for help? 

There are 557 députés (MPs) in France’s Assemblée nationale – of whom 362 are men and 215 are women. 

They are elected on a constituency (circonscription) basis, so every area of France has its ‘local’ representative in parliament – you can look up yours here.

Officially however, French MPs are invested with a national mandate – effectively, France is their constituency. They are, therefore, expected to act in what they believe are the best interests of the whole country at all times – not just the interest of their local area.

National mandate 

“MPs in France are not mouthpieces for their voters,” the Assemblée nationale website declares, “they act for themselves in relation to their vision of the general interest.”

It goes on to insist that MPs, “cannot be prisoners of local or sectional interests” – meaning that they should not be persuaded to vote in a particular way by outside parties, whether that is businesses/ monied individuals/ lobbyists – or their own voters. 

It’s a Revolutionary ideal that has its origins in article three of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, from August 26th, 1789: “The principle of all sovereignty resides essentially in the nation. No body, no individual can exercise authority that does not emanate expressly from it.”

And the French Constitution states: “national sovereignty belongs to the people, who exercise it through their representatives”.

Basically, it means that deputies represent the entire nation and not just voters in their constituency.

READ ALSO OPINION: How to be loved by the French electorate? Retire or die

In reality, of course, MPs are influenced by what matters to their constituents – so for example an MP elected in a rural area might be more likely to back laws that protect farmers. 

And it’s not just MPs – the recent unsuccessful attempts to ease post-Brexit rules for British second-home owners were proposed by Senators who have constituencies in south-west France and the Alps; areas well known for having a high number of second homes.

Nonetheless, the theory is of ‘national’ MPs.

Meeting the locals

Crucially, however, this does not mean that – once elected – MPs do not meet residents in the constituencies that elected them and discuss local issues. Quite the opposite.

Constituents can contact their député to discuss ideas and concerns. In fact, your local MP – with their national mandate – is easy to get in touch with. You can find their official assembly email address here, along with where they sit in the hemisphere and what they have recently been up to in parliament, by searching for your commune or département.

In theory, that national mandate means you could contact any of France’s 577 MPs for assistance. But it makes sense to seek out the ones the electorate in your area voted for, because it means they should have a handle on any local issues and angles.

If you already know the name of your friendly neighbourhood MP, you could search for them on social media, and contact them that way; while many – but by no means all – have their own website, with additional contact details. 

So, generally, you can get hold of your French MP easily enough. They hold office hours, organise public meetings, respond to numerous requests for assistance and advice, and channel the concerns of their constituents to national decision-making bodies.

It is part of their job to help you if they can.

You may also bump into them at events in the local area such as summer fêstivals, the Fête de la musique or more formal events such as the Armistice Day commemorations or the July 14th celebrations. Politicians like to get involved in local events to either remain part of the community or to persuade people to re-elect them (take your pick).

At formal events they will be wearing a tricolore sash and you will be able to tell them apart from the local mayor by which way up they wear their sashes (honestly, this is true).

Mairie

Sometimes their help will involve pointing you in the direction of your local mairie – which may be better at dealing with more practical matters.

In fact, for many local issues, the mairie should be your first port of call – or possibly the préfecture. France has several layers of local government and they have quite far-reaching powers – especially local mayors.

For this reason, it’s more usual to first approach the mairie rather than your MP if you have a problem – but there’s nothing to stop you approaching your MP instead.

The convenient truth is that French MPs do not work just in the ivory tower of the Palais Bourbon.

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