As voters prepared themselves for the most divisive election in decades and President Emmanuel Macron threatened a “civil war,” France’s three main political parties were fixed to square off in a pivotal television discussion on Tuesday.
With the far-right National demonstration leading the polls, the atmosphere surrounding Sunday’s first round of voting in the parliamentary elections has reached a fever pitch.
On the Tuesday night discussion, Manuel Bompard of France Unbowed, who represents a left-wing coalition that has also outperformed Macron’s party in the polls, and RN president Jordan Bardella will square off against Prime Minister Gabriel Attal of Macron’s centrist Renaissance party.
Bardella, who is only 28 years old, has the potential to become the first far-right prime minister in modern French history, but he has stated that he will only accept the position should the RN secure an absolute majority in parliament.
Macron has vowed to serve as president until the end of his second term in 2027, irrespective of the outcome. After his party was humiliated in a European vote earlier this month, he decided to call a snap election, which has drawn criticism from all questions.
According to an Ifop survey, the RN has 36% of the vote, the left-leaning New Popular Front has 29.5%, and Macron’s group has 20.5%. As a result, the president’s supporters are pleading with him to withdraw from the campaign.
However, Macron intervened on Monday night, laying accusations on both the RN and France Unbowed of stoking tensions and division, and warning that the actions of the two “extremes” may lead to a “civil war.” Leaders on the right and left denounced his comments.
Macron’s explanation, according to RN leader Marine Le Pen, was “weak” and indicated that “he thinks he’s lost this election.” The leader of the center-left Socialists in the Senate, Patrick Kanner, also claimed that his comments demonstrated that France is “faced with someone who no longer in control anything.”
There were people who argued that the balance between the three blocs would not likely shift following Tuesday’s TV debate.
“What debate? People have already chosen, it’s already crystallised,” a top member of Macron’s team, who asked not to be named, told AFP. “Maybe it can help us with the abstainers.”
In an open letter against the far-right published in the Le Monde daily, about 200 socialists, environmentalists, and centrists charged all parties to come together against the RN in the second-round runoff, which is to be held on July7.
Bardella and Attal, for the meantime, requested that Jean-Luc Melenchon, the founder of France Unbowed, fill the left-wing position in Tuesday’s debate instead of Bompard.
Because of his extreme views, former presidential candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon is the most recognizable but also the most polarizing figure on the left. Many on the left believe that if they win, a more “consensus” candidate will become prime minister.
Melenchon “is not the leader of the New Popular Front and he will not be prime minister,” Ecologist Party leader Marine Tondelier told AFP on Monday.
Melenchon himself has refused to rule himself out of the running, saying his name “opens doors in working-class neighbourhoods.”
The fact that there is zero representation from right-wing Republicans in Tuesday’s TV discussion is indicative of how traditional parties have crumbled. They insisted on being included and filed a case before France’s top administrative court, the Council of State.
