Scholz, from Germany, expresses concern about far-right victory in France | Election News

France goes to the polls in July for early elections and opinion polls predict that President Emmanuel Macron’s party is at a disadvantage.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said he was “concerned” about the prospect of a far-right victory in the next parliamentary elections in France.

President Emmanuel Macron’s party is in a difficult situation, with less than two weeks to go until the first round of early elections he called in response to the far-right defeat his party received in European polls.

Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party also made gains in this month’s European Parliament elections, while Scholz’s ruling coalition suffered.

“I’m worried about the elections in France,” Scholz told public broadcaster ARD in an annual summer interview.

“And I hope that parties that are not [Marine] Le Pen, so to speak, was successful in the elections. But that is for the French people to decide,” he added.

Widespread protests in France

Since President Macron called the elections, thousands of people have marched in demonstrations across France against the far right.

On Saturday, protesters dressed in violet marched from the Place de la Republique square in the center of Paris to the Place de la Nation in the east, carrying signs with messages such as “Keep out the far right, not our rights”.

With the National Rally (RN) vote at around 35 percent, protesters feel the need to emphasize the consequences of a far-right victory.

“We have to remind people that they were the ones who talked about ‘comfort abortions,’ who are always attacking family planning services,” said Morgane Legras, a nuclear engineer and feminist activist who participated in the thousands-strong march in Paris. she told AFP.

Other rallies took place in around 50 other cities across France.

The country’s two-round electoral system makes it difficult to predict which party will ultimately claim a majority in the lower house of parliament, handing that party the position of prime minister, which is second in power behind President Emmanuel Macron.

Opinion polls predicted that Macron’s ruling alliance would come third in the June 30 legislative elections – followed by a second round on July 7 – behind Le Pen’s far-right RN and a new left alliance.

The RN gained unprecedented levels of support after a decades-long “de-demonization” effort to distance its image from its roots, including a co-founder who was a member of the Nazi paramilitary group Waffen-SS.

But the core of the RN’s message remains hostility to immigration, Islam and the European Union.