AND – France: Election result frustrates far-right expectations
We publish an unofficial translation of the article by A Nova Democracia.
The results of the parliamentary elections in France did not confirm the trend of victory for the extreme right. New political crises are emerging for the choice of the next prime minister.
The result of the second round of elections to the French parliament gave victory to the New Popular Front, which obtained the largest number of elected Parliaments in the National Assembly. However, the coalition did not obtain a majority. The extreme right of Rassemblement national was unable to guarantee the victory that was expected in the first round. The ultra-reactionary leader Marine Le Pen, in an interview, stated that “the victory was just postponed”. Emmanuel Macron’s Renaissance came in second place, being the coalition that lost the most seats in relation to the last parliamentary election held in 2022. The one that gained the most was the extreme right (Rassemblement national, with 143 seats, 55 more) , followed by the New Popular Front (182 seats, with 33 more).
Shortly after the first round, the false left coalition joined Emmanuel Macron’s imperialist right. The strategy, called the “cordon sanitaire” against the extreme right, was announced after the Rassemblement national won 33% of the votes in the first edition of the French electoral farce.
The false left, however, from the beginning of the electoral dispute included a series of right-wing positions in its electoral program. Among them criticism of the “terrorist massacres of Hamas” and its “theocratic project”, in an ambiguous self-declared “support” for the Palestinian cause that reflectss concepts conveyed by Zionism.
Even though the leader of “La France insoumise” Jean Luc Mélenchon stated that “the New Popular Front is ready to govern France” and highlighted its “ecological and social program”, his coalition did not obtain the 189 seats to form the necessary majority to nominate the prime minister.
While Macron’s agreement with the New Popular Front is expected, new political crises are already showing their first signs: Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, from Renaissance, has made the position available. Macron, however, asked Attal to remain in office “for the sake of the country’s stability”.
Within this new situation, even though the extreme right has not achieved its objective in the current election, sensitive issues for French workers are far from being decided. The majority of the new parliament is in favor, for example, of the pension reform, which, when announced by the Macron government in 2023, took millions of French people to the streets.
