On June 15, 2024, far-right parties made significant progress in the European Parliament elections in Paris. French President Emmanuel Macron announced the holding of legislative elections, and subsequently protesters gathered at an anti-far-right rally.
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French President Emmanuel Macron faces a reckoning after France’s far-right achieved a historic victory in the first round of snap parliamentary elections.
The National Rally (NR), led by firebrand Marine Le Pen and its allies, received more than 33% of the vote in Sunday’s vote, firmly condemning Macron’s centrist and globalist policies. If they go on to win an outright majority in Sunday’s second round of voting, Macron’s power will be severely weakened.
Early elections are a high-stakes gamble for the French president, who has been in power for more than seven years. He framed the campaign as a choice between nationalism and demagoguery, or liberal values and a strong, united EU – but many now believe his gamble has backfired.
Thomas Piketty, the best-selling French economist and economics professor, identifies what he calls one of Macron’s biggest mistakes: ignoring and demonizing the French left.
“I’m a little concerned that the current government has tried in recent weeks, days, months to demonize the left — even though Macron would never have been elected without the left,” said Piketty, author of Twenty Author of Capital in the Century.
“Without people on the left voting for Macron against Le Pen in 2022 and 2017, he wouldn’t have become president, and he never really tried to do something with the people who made him president in the end.”
Piketty describes France as having three main voting blocs: the far right, centrist business groups and the left. He described Macron’s centrist Ennahda party as gaining votes in “very upscale parts of the country” where business elites are concentrated, and said “they think they can stay in power as long as they cater to these groups.”
Macron’s supporters and the left are now scrambling to join forces to prevent the far right from taking control of the French legislature, as they did in the 2022 and 2017 presidential elections. But many of Macron’s policies, such as cutting benefits, raising the national retirement age and suppressing protests, have alienated left-wing voters.
“You can’t govern this country for long with such a narrow electoral base,” Piketty said.
“I think that’s an important lesson for this election, but also for other countries: the idea of putting together the center right and the center left, and the winners of globalization, and running the country against the left, against the right. Yes. Ah, this isn’t something that lasts long.
After the disastrous defeat in the European Parliament elections, in which right-wing parties scored major victories in many countries including France, Germany and Austria, Macron announced that early parliamentary elections will be held on June 9.
Ahead of the second round of elections for France’s 577-seat National Assembly, 200 candidates said they would withdraw from the raceReuters cited local media reports to avoid splitting anti-far-right votes.
To this end, Macron urged the center-left and center-right to unite, calling for “widespread rallies in support of Republican and Democratic” candidates.
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