PARIS (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron called Wednesday on moderate politicians on the left and right to regroup to defeat the far right in general elections.
Macron, a pro-business centrist, said he wanted “men and women of good will who were able to say ‘no’ to extremes to come together to be able to build a joint project” for the country.
Macron addresses French voters for the first time since calling for early national elections, following his party’s crushing defeat by the far right in the vote for the European Parliament.
His speech is mainly to explain his shocking decision to dissolve the National Assemblythe lower house of the French parliament, which triggered an early legislative election that will take place three weeks after Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally party triumphed in the European Union Parliament elections.
Macron said he decided to call an early vote because he could not ignore the new political reality after his pro-European party suffered a severe defeat and obtained less than half the support of the National Rally with its Star leader, Jordan Bardella.
Macron, who still has three years to go in his second presidential term, hopes voters will unite to contain the far right in national elections in a way they didn’t do it in Europeans.
“Things are simple today: we have unnatural alliances at both extremes, which do not agree on anything except the jobs to be shared, and which will not be able to implement any program,” Macron said during an opening speech at a conference of press in Paris. .
Sunday’s decision to dissolve parliament and send voters who have just expressed their discontent with Macron’s policies to the polls It was a risky move this could result in the French far right leading a government for the first time since World War II.
Potential alliances and France’s two-round voting system in national elections make the outcome of the vote highly uncertain.
Opposition parties on the left and right have struggled to form alliances and present candidates in the early legislative voting which will take place on June 30th and July 7th.
Although sharp differences persist between parties on both sides of the political spectrum, prominent figures advocating a united front appear to have one thing in common: they do not want to cooperate with Macron.
Despite their divisions, left-wing parties agreed on Monday night to form an alliance that includes the Greens, Socialists, Communists and Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s far-left France Unsubmissible.
The leader of the National Rally, Marine Le Pen, is working to consolidate the power of the right, in efforts to translate the European triumph into a national victory and get closer to claiming power. The far-right party, with a history of racism and xenophobia, is expected to win the most French seats in the European Parliament, potentially up to 30 of France’s 81.
