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‘Totally normal’ to speak to the far right, insists Macron

President Emmanuel Macron has insisted it was "totally normal" for his government to hold discussions with the far right, which has long been shunned by France's political mainstream.

'Totally normal' to speak to the far right, insists Macron
French President Emmanuel Macron. (Photo by Ludovic MARIN / POOL / AFP)

Macron’s government was slammed for seeking support from the far-right Rassemblement National (RN) party to pass a controversial immigration law in December.

That bill was hardened to gain the support of the RN and other right-wing MPs, but the country’s highest constitutional authority censured most of the
new amendments, which were dropped before Macron signed it into law last month.

Macron denied that his government was counting on the votes of the far right to get laws through parliament.

He told reporters in Bordeaux that there was “recognition that all parties present in parliament were chosen by our compatriots”.

“Several laws have been approved by the RN, we have simply ensured that no bill was passed solely thanks to RN votes,” he added.

“But it’s totally normal to say there can be discussions,” he said. “We aren’t going to assume that one political grouping or another has less
parliamentary rights.”

The far right has clawed its way further into the French political mainstream in recent years after decades of being cold-shouldered by other parties.

As recently as 2022, Macron presented a vote for his re-election as the only way to keep the far-right Marine Le Pen out of the presidency.

A more flexible approach has crept in since his centrist party lost its absolute majority in parliamentary elections.

Macron’s Prime Minister Gabriel Attal on Thursday said it was normal to work “with everybody” in parliament, including groups he was “radically opposed” to such as the RN and the far-left La France Insoumise (LFI) party.

“Behind these lawmakers, even if we don’t agree, there are millions of French voters,” he told the France 2 television channel.

“It would be disrespecting them to say, ‘Because you are from LFI or RN, we won’t listen or look at a (suggested) amendment,'” he said.

Macron appointed Attal last month to head a more right-leaning cabinet as part of a bid to relaunch his presidency and prevent the far right from winning in June’s European elections and the next presidential election in 2027.

After serving the maximum two consecutive terms, Macron cannot stand for president again in 2027, with RN figurehead Le Pen sensing her best chance to claim the Elysee Palace.

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FRENCH ELECTIONS

French election breakdown: TV clash, polling latest and ‘poo’ Le Pen

From the polls latest to the first big TV election clash, via a lot of questions about the French Constitution and the president's future - here's the situation 17 days on from Emmanuel Macron's shock election announcement.

French election breakdown: TV clash, polling latest and 'poo' Le Pen

During the election period we will be publishing a bi-weekly ‘election breakdown’ to help you keep up with the latest developments. You can receive these as an email by going to the newsletter section here and selecting subscribe to ‘breaking news alerts’.

It’s now been 17 days since Macron’s surprise call for snap parliamentary elections, and four days until the first round of voting.

TV debates

The hotly-anticipated first TV debate of the election on Tuesday night turned out to be an ill-tempered affair with a lot of interruptions and men talking over each other.

The line of the night went to the left representative Manuel Bompard – who otherwise struggled to make much of an impact – when he told far-right leader Jordan Bardella (whose Italian ancestors migrated to France several generations back): “When your personal ancestors arrived in France, your political ancestors said exactly the same thing to them. I find that tragic.”

But perhaps the biggest question of all is whether any of this matters? The presidential election debate between Macron and Marine Le Pen back in 2017 is widely credited with influencing the campaign as Macron exposed her contradictory policies and economic illiteracy.

However a debate ahead of the European elections last month between Bardella and prime minister Gabriel Attal was widely agreed to have been ‘won’ by Attal, who also managed to expose flaws and contradictions in the far right party’s policies. Nevertheless, the far-right went on to convincingly beat the Macronists at the polls.

Has the political scene simply moved on so that Bardella’s brief and fact-light TikTok videos convince more people than a two-hour prime-time TV debate?

You can hear the team from The Local discussing all the election latest on the Talking France podcast – listen here or on the link below

Road to chaos

Just over two weeks ago when Macron called this election, he intended to call the bluff of the French electorate – did they really want a government made up of Marine Len Pen’s far-right Rassemblement National (RN) party?

Well, latest polling suggests that a large portion of French people want exactly that, and significantly fewer people want to continue with a Macron government.

With the caveat that pollsters themselves say this is is a difficult election to call, current polling suggests RN would take 35 percent of the vote, the leftist alliance Nouveau Front Populaire 30 percent and Macron’s centrists 20 percent.

This is potentially bad news for everyone, as those figures would give no party an overall majority in parliament and would instead likely usher in an era of political chaos.

The questions discussed in French conversation and media have now moved on from ‘who will win the election?’ to distinctly more technical concerns like – what exactly does the Constitution say about the powers of a president without a government? Can France have a ‘caretaker government’ in the long term? Is it time for a 6th republic?.

The most over-used phrase in French political discourse this week? Sans précédent (unprecedented).

Démission

From sans précédent to sans président – if this election leads to total chaos, will Macron resign? It’s certainly being discussed, but he says he will not.

For citizens of many European parliamentary democracies it seems virtually automatic that the president would resign if he cannot form a government, but the French system is very different and several French presidents have continued in post despite being obliged to appoint an opponent as prime minister.

READ ALSO Will Macron resign in case of an election disaster?

The only president of the Fifth Republic to resign early was Charles de Gaulle – the trigger was the failure of a referendum on local government, but it may be that he was simply fed up; he was 78 years old and had already been through an attempted coup and the May 1968 general strike which paralysed the country. He died a year after leaving office.

Caca craft

She might be riding high in the polls, but not everyone is enamoured of Le Pen, it seems, especially not in ‘lefty’ eastern Paris – as seen by this rather neatly crafted Marine Le Pen flag stuck into a lump of dog poo left on the pavement.

Thanks to spotter Helen Massy-Beresford, who saw this in Paris’s 20th arrondissement.

You can find all the latest election news HERE, or sign up to receive these election breakdowns as an email by going to the newsletter section here and selecting subscribe to ‘breaking news alerts’.

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