In the aftermath of a presidential election that revealed a fractured France and an extreme right at the highest level, Emmanuel Macron is facing major challenges to convince disillusioned voters and win a majority in the June legislative elections, whose battle promises to be fierce.
A “re-election without a state of grace”, summed up the newspaper on Monday The worlddue in particular to an “abstention close to records and an extreme right which for the first time exceeds the 40% mark”.
For its part, the daily The cross judges that the victory of Emmanuel Macron, the first French president to be re-elected for a second term since Jacques Chirac in 2002, also sounds like a “warning”. The newspaper evokes a democracy “more than ever in unstable equilibrium, due to a presidential regime which has shown its limits”.
The battle for the legislative elections, on June 12 and 19, promises to be very disputed. Far-right candidate Marine Le Pen, who has gained around eight points since the 2017 presidential election, reached a historic score with 41.45% of the vote.
Despite his 58.5% in the second round, Emmanuel Macron, 44, does not appear to be in a good position to win a parliamentary majority and have a free hand to conduct his policy. It imposed itself, five years ago, in the political arena by surfing on the disintegration of the great traditional formations. His party, La République en Marche (LREM), is not well established throughout the country, even if it won a majority in the National Assembly in 2017.
Respond “to anger”
Some voters voted Sunday for this liberal centrist only to block the far right. And from Sunday evening, Mr. Macron spoke to them, emphasizing that he was “aware that this vote [l’]obliges for the years to come”. Also addressing far-right voters, Mr. Macron pledged to find “an answer” to their “anger and [à leur] disagreement “.
The last five years have been punctuated by crises and anti-system demonstrations from the Yellow Vests movement to the COVID-19 pandemic. And the campaign, marked by the pandemic and the war in Ukraine, showed strong democratic fatigue.
“Emmanuel Macron is aware of having to appease”, declared on RTL radio the Minister of Labor, Élisabeth Borne, whose name is circulating to replace the current Prime Minister, Jean Castex. We must “respond to the message of anger and concern from millions of French people who say ‘I can’t get out of it'”, said the Minister of the Economy, Bruno Le Maire, on franceinfo.
Asked about the future government, the government spokesman, Gabriel Attal, gave no details, stressing that the decisions “do not depend on him”.
Mr. Macron, often described as “president of the rich”, must innovate in democratic practice to “avoid a” yellow vest “of his five-year term”, judge Jean-Marcel Bouguereau, in the newspaper The Republic of the Pyrenees.
Because this is a “polytraumatized” France, observes Dominique Diogon, of the daily The mountain.
The two Frances
The results map draws two Frances. One voted for Emmanuel Macron: the big cities, the upper middle classes and retirees. And the other chose Marine Le Pen: more popular, often feeling excluded, particularly in the northeast and around the Mediterranean. With more than 60% of the votes, Marine Le Pen has also achieved historic scores overseas. Faced with these deep divisions, Emmanuel Macron promised Sunday evening a “refounded method” to govern France.
“Emmanuel Macron will be faced with a choice which is to know how far he must reduce his original project and in the direction of which electorate: rather left or rather right, which he has considerably digested and integrated already? says Brice Teinturier, Deputy CEO of Ipsos France.
Facing Mr. Macron, the two other big political blocs have already entered the battle. Sunday evening, M.me Le Pen saw in his unpublished score “a brilliant victory” and the manifestation of the “wish” of the French for “a strong counter-power to Emmanuel Macron”. On the opposite side of the political spectrum, the leader of the radical left Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who came third in the first round, has made the next legislative elections a “third round”.
The re-election of Emmanuel Macron has been hailed by several leaders around the world. US President Joe Biden has said that their two countries will continue to cooperate to “defend democracy”. Russian President Vladimir Putin wished Mr Macron “success” in his new term, despite the high tensions linked to Ukraine. The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, was delighted “to be able to continue [leur] excellent cooperation” to “move France and Europe forward”.
With the political pole of the AFP