France was preparing on Sunday for a frantic fortnight of election campaigning for early polls called by President Emmanuel Macron to combat the far right, as football star Kylian Mbappe entered the feverish atmosphere with a warning not to vote for extremes.
Candidates had until 16:00 GMT to register for the 577 seats in the National Assembly, before campaigning officially begins at midnight for the first round on June 30. The decisive second round takes place on July 7th.
The alliance led by centrist Macron, who called early elections around three years earlier after the far right defeated his party in the EU Parliament elections, now has just under two weeks of campaigning to make up for what still remains. seems to be a huge gap in relation to the far right. .
The outcome of the vote remains far from clear, with many in France still perplexed about why Macron called an election that could see the far-right National Rally (RN) leading the government and its leader. Jordan Bardela28, as Prime Minister.
But another likely outcome is a hung parliament, without an overall majority, followed by weeks of coalition building and potentially even more elections.
One of the last candidates to register was Marie-Caroline Le Pen, the older sister of three-time RN presidential candidate Marine Le Pen, who will represent the party in the central region of Sarthe.
His daughter Nolwenn Olivier is Bardella’s former partner.
– ‘Young and inexperienced’ –
Mbappe, who represents France at the Euro 2024 tournament in Germany, said he was “against extremes and divisive ideas” and called on young people to vote at a “crucial moment” in French history.
The striker defended comments made on Saturday by his teammate Marco Thuramsaying that he “didn’t go too far” in calling on the country “to fight every day to prevent” the RN from winning the elections.
“Today we can all see that extremists are very close to gaining power and we have the opportunity to choose the future of our country,” said Mbappé.
The French men’s national football team has long been seen as a beacon of diversity in the country. The French Football Federation called against “any form of pressure and political use of the French team”.
Macron’s dissolution of parliament following the French far-right’s victory in the EU vote quickly redrawn the boundaries of French politics.
A new left-wing alliance, the New Popular Front, which welcomes socialists and radical leftists, faced its first crisis over the weekend after some prominent deputies from the far-left France Insubmissa (LFI) party discovered they had not been introduced to stand up again.
But Adrien Quatennens, a close ally of LFI figurehead Jean-Luc Mélenchon, withdrew his candidacy, which sparked outrage over a domestic violence conviction.
On the right, the decision by Eric Ciotti, leader of the right-wing Republicans (LR), to seek an electoral pact with the RN provoked fury within the party and a movement by its leadership to dismiss him, which a Paris court blocked in Friday.
Former right-wing president Nicolas Sarkozy told the Journal du Dimanche newspaper that Ciotti should have consulted the party leadership about the coalition and put the issue to a member vote.
He expressed concern that LR was at risk of being absorbed by RN and also questioned the wisdom of supporting Bardella as prime minister.
Bardella “has never been in charge of anything,” Sarkozy said, asking: “Can you lead France when you are so young and inexperienced?”
– ‘Surprise is not enough’ –
Macron is expected to return to the domestic campaign this week after commitments abroad at the G7 summit in Italy and the Ukrainian peace conference in Switzerland.
The president was advised by comrades in his ruling Renaissance party to let the considerably more popular prime minister, Gabriel Attal, 35, take the lead in the campaign.
But the personal risks are enormous for Macron, who risks becoming a lame-duck president until his term expires in 2027, despite having ruled out the possibility of resigning regardless of the outcome of the polls.
Former Socialist Prime Minister Lionel Jospin, who retired from politics in 2002 after Marine’s far-right father Jean-Marie Le Pen kept him out of the second round of presidential elections, warned of the dangers for Macron.
Jospin, who very rarely speaks in public, said Macron had forced France into a “hasty” campaign and was “giving the RN an opportunity to come to power in France”.
“It’s not responsible,” he told Le Monde, accusing Macron of “arrogance” and adding witheringly that “surprise is not enough to be the master of the game.”
sjw/bc
