(Paris) Criticized for having dissolved the National Assembly after the debacle of his camp in the European elections, Emmanuel Macron called for a “surge” in the face of the “extremes”, while the main right-wing party on Wednesday excluded its leader who supported an unprecedented alliance with the far right.
For the first time, the French head of state admitted his “responsibility” for the failure of his camp, crushed on Sunday by the National Rally (RN, far-right), while refusing “the spirit of defeat “. “The start is for now,” he insisted.
Throughout a press conference lasting more than an hour and a half, the president worked Wednesday to justify his decision to dissolve the Assembly, which plunged the country into uncertainty, surprised in his own camp and implodes the Republican right around a possible alliance with the RN.
“I fully take responsibility for having triggered a movement of clarification. Firstly because the French asked us for it on Sunday. When 50% of French people vote at the extremes, when you have a relative majority in the Assembly, you cannot tell them: “We continue as if nothing had happened,” he declared.
Despite his popularity at half mast and the polls which make the RN the big favorite in the elections of June 30 and July 7, Emmanuel Macron called on the parties of his majority to begin discussions with other political groups which will have “been able to say no to the extremes” in order to “build a sincere and useful common project for the country” and “govern”.
Outlining some programmatic measures (major debate on secularism, telephone ban for children under 11, etc.), the president above all sent back to back the extreme right, which would advocate “exclusion”, and the extreme left embodied by La France insoumise (LFI), which he accuses of “anti-Semitism and anti-parliamentarism”.
“I say the extreme right when speaking of the National Rally, because its leaders continue to say that there are real and false French people, continue to consider reducing press freedom or rejecting the State of right,” he said, emphasizing the dangers of the RN coming to power, which garnered 31.37% of the votes at the polls on Sunday in France.
“If the National Rally came to responsibilities, what would happen to our values, to our binational compatriots of diverse origins living in the neighborhoods? », he said in particular, also accusing the RN of maintaining an “ambiguity towards Russia” on Ukraine and of wanting “an exit from NATO”.
Mr Macron also targeted the radical left party La France insoumise (LFI), accused of having “created sometimes constant disorder” in the National Assembly. He castigated the alliance, “indecent” according to him, which is taking shape between LFI and three other left-wing parties: the socialist, communist and Green parties.
The construction of this new “Popular Front” is taking shape with an agreement concluded very late in the night from Tuesday to Wednesday for the distribution of almost all of the 577 constituencies in view of the next legislative elections.
The right-wing opposition is plunging into a deep crisis.
The main conservative party in France, Les Républicains (LR), on Wednesday expelled its president Eric Ciotti, who had triggered an internal crisis the day before by proposing an unprecedented alliance with the far right.
The decision was taken “unanimously” by the party’s political bureau and immediately contested by Mr. Ciotti. “I am and I remain president,” he proclaimed, warning of “criminal consequences.”
On the majority side, the debate is also growing on the place that Emmanuel Macron should play in the campaign, with certain deputies and executives fearing a sanction vote linked to the rejection of the president by part of public opinion.
His former prime minister Édouard Philippe considered it “not completely healthy” for the president to get too involved, pointing out in passing an “anger” aroused, according to him, in public opinion by the dissolution.
“The President of the Republic must set a course, a vision, but he is not there to campaign in the legislative elections. So I will not campaign in the legislative elections,” replied Mr. Macron.
