Europe's news in English

COPY LINK

ELECTIONS

‘Alarm bells ringing’: Dembélé calls on France stars to vote in key elections

French football star Ousmane Dembélé admitted on Thursday the political situation in the country had "set alarm bells ringing" and said he and his teammates intended to vote in upcoming legislative elections even if they are still involved at Euro 2024 in Germany.

Published: 13 June 2024 18:39 CEST

'Alarm bells ringing': Dembélé calls on France stars to vote in key elections

France's forward Ousmane Dembele gives a press conference at the Home Deluxe Arena Stadium in Paderborn, western Germany, on June 13. Photo by FRANCK FIFE / AFP

“We need to mobilise to get out and vote,” Dembélé told reporters at the French team’s training base in western Germany where they are preparing for their opening European Championship game against Austria on Monday.

“I think the situation in France has set alarm bells ringing. Everyone needs to rally round and come together to vote.”

President Emmanuel Macron has called snap parliamentary elections with the first round set for June 30th and the second round on July 7th.

READ ALSO What do snap parliamentary elections mean for France?

He announced the snap poll last Sunday in response to the results of the EU elections, in which far-right parties — including the top-scoring Rassemblement National (RN) — managed to take almost 40 percent of the vote in France.

“I was watching the news not long ago and I saw that one in every two people in France doesn’t vote, so everyone needs to vote in the legislative elections,” added Dembélé, the former Barcelona winger now playing back in France for Paris Saint-Germain.

The French squad will still be in Germany at the time of the election, provided they make it beyond the group stage.

The first round of the election is set to take place the same weekend as the last 16 of Euro 2024, while the second round comes just after the quarter-finals.

However, Dembélé said the French Football Federation was planning to help players set up a proxy vote if they remained in Germany at the time.

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.

Become a Member to leave a comment.

Will the far-right get a majority in the French parliament?

The final results for round one of voting, released early on Monday morning, showed the far-right Rassemblement National (RN) party well in the lead with 33.4 percent of the votes.

They were followed by the alliance of leftist parties, called the Nouveau Front Populaire on 28 percent, Macron’s centrist group Ensemble on 20.8 percent, and the right-wing Les Republicains party on 10.2 percent.

Follow the latest on the results HERE.

We now move on to round two – which will give the final results in each of France’s 577 constituencies.

The big question is whether any party or group can reach the magic number of 289 seats, which would give them a majority in the Assemblée nationale (the French parliament).

A party or group that gets 289 seats not only gets to exercise control over votes on legislation, but can also nominate a member of the party to be prime minister.

If a party other than the president’s party has a majority then the prime minister and the president are forced to work together in an easy alliance known as a cohabitiation.

So will the far-right RN win enough seats to get a majority?

First things first – this is all guesswork, we won’t know for certain whether Le Pen and Jordan Bardella’s party will have enough seats for a majority until the results of the second round are in on the evening of Sunday, July 7th.

However the pollsters have been working their magic trying to predict the total seat share from the first round vote and it seems they RN are set to win a huge number of seats.

Various different polling agencies have different and very wide estimates, but all are saying that the final result for the RN could be close to that key number of 289.

A projection for the Elabe institute for BFMTV, RMC and La Tribune Dimanche put RN and its allies on between 255 and 295 seats.

Early projections from Ipsos suggest that RN and its allies could win between 230 and 280 seats in parliament.

It’s worth noting that given the unpredictability around the second round of voting (see below) France’s official polling watchdog does not endorse the seat projections by the polling companies.

Polls in the run up to the first round suggested the RN would not gain an absolute majority in parliament but wouldn’t be far off.

Second round votes

A big factor in the second round will be the ‘triangulaires’ or areas where the second round has three candidates.

In areas where this happens, it’s possible that some parties will agree to withdraw candidates in order to avoid splitting the vote – negotiations are ongoing in this area but it’s most likely to happen with leftist or centrist candidates.

The intention is to present a common front against the far-right – so if this happens in a significant number of areas it could affect the far-right’s overall seat numbers.

Follow the latest on those negotiations HERE.

Prime minister

If the far-right does gain an overall majority it has the right to nominate a candidate for prime minister and that person will be 28-year-old Jordan Bardella.

He has already said that he will only accept the PM role if his party wins an overall majority.

Although Macron will remain the president, having a parliamentary majority and a prime minister means the far-right will be in a much stronger position to implement some of their flagship policies including a drastic reduction in immigration and the imposing of ‘French preference’ to give precedence to French citizens in employment and housing.

READ ALSO What would a far-right prime minister mean for foreigners in France?

Url copied to clipboard!