(Paris) In an increasingly tense climate three days before the verdict of the ballot boxes, the parties are throwing their last forces into the battle, with Marine Le Pen comparing the establishment of a “republican front” against the RN to “a single party” whose sole aim is to deprive the far-right party of an absolute majority in the Assembly.
While candidates are still campaigning in 501 of the 577 constituencies, after 76 first-round elections, the last few days have been marked by a multiplication of incidents.
On Wednesday evening, government spokesperson Prisca Thevenot, a candidate in Hauts-de-Seine, was the victim, along with her team, of an assault during a poster-posting operation. In Savoie, an RN candidate, Marie Dauchy, filed a complaint after being violently attacked by a shopkeeper at a market.
Frédéric Valletoux, Minister Delegate for Health and presidential candidate in Seine-et-Marne, noted on Public Sénat “the verbal clashes on the markets, the thoughts that come quickly, the tension between the candidates’ teams.”
There are also reports of an increase in racist incidents and insults in the country.
Asked about the many RN candidates who have been singled out in recent days for their remarks, particularly xenophobic or anti-Semitic, Marine Le Pen made a distinction between “remarks that are unacceptable and which will most certainly lead to sanctions” and “remarks that are clumsy” in the face of the “grand inquisitors of the press”.
The RN candidates are “good people” who “are running because the National Assembly must be the image of France, not the image of Sciences-Po,” she argued.
“Not an unworthy vote”
This climate is also fueled by the tension created by the laborious establishment of “a republican front” against the RN.
Marine Le Pen denounced the establishment of a “single party” of “those who want to retain power”, believing that RN voters “are truly treated like pariahs”.
“It is not an unworthy vote to vote against,” replied Raphaël Glucksmann on the left.
“We have taken our responsibilities” in the face of the “risk of an absolute majority” for the RN, Gabriel Attal explained on Wednesday evening, refusing however to give “voting instructions”.
Are these numerous withdrawals – 130 for the left, more than 80 for the Macronists – starting to have an impact?
According to a study conducted by Toluna Harris Interactive on Wednesday, the National Rally could obtain between 190 and 220 seats on July 7. The New Popular Front would have between 159 and 183, and the presidential camp between 110 and 135.
PHOTO YARA NARDI, REUTERS ARCHIVES
People gather to protest against the French far-right party National Rally (RN), at Place de la République, following the results of the first round of legislative elections in early 2024.
“A governable France”
If the RN does not obtain an absolute majority, the question will arise as to who the presidential camp can govern with within a “grand coalition”, in which LFI has already said it does not want to participate.
“Afterwards, we will no longer count in terms of the Popular Front, we will count the Republicans, the centrists, the democrats, the Renaissance, the Horizons, the MoDem, the socialists, the ecologists, the communists… What will be the balance of power between the different groups in the Assembly?” asks a majority official, while noting that La France insoumise and the National Rally would surely have enough votes, between them, to overthrow the government, via a motion of censure in the Assembly.
On this issue, the various officials are moving forward cautiously before knowing the balance of power resulting from the second round.
France “must be governable on Sunday evening,” said the national secretary of the Communist Party, Fabien Roussel, on Thursday, implying that his party could participate in a coalition if it meets “the expectations of the French,” particularly on purchasing power and the repeal of the pension reform.
“I will not participate in a government that would be a motley and improvised coalition”, a “hodgepodge”, warned François Ruffin, who will no longer sit with La France Insoumise if he is re-elected in the Somme.
PHOTO JOEL SAGET, ARCHIVES AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
On July 4, 2024, MP François Ruffin, campaigning in the Somme, described the LFI leader as an “obstacle to the vote”, after announcing that he would no longer sit in the LFI group in the Assembly if he were re-elected on July 7, 2024.
“What I can tell you is that it could also be quite long. We’re not going on holiday right away,” summed up environmentalist Marine Tondelier on Europe 1/Cnews.
Major political figures will once again occupy the television sets on Thursday.
The leader of La France Insoumise, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who continues to blow hot and cold on a hypothetical candidacy for Matignon, will be the guest on the 8 p.m. news on TF1.
On France 2, Gabriel Attal, Jordan Bardella, Raphaël Glucksmann and David Lisnard will appear in the evening for Les Républicains, after the socialist Olivier Faure who will speak on the news.
A series of interviews but still no debate, while on Wednesday evening a similar format was organized on BFMTV where the Prime Minister, Marine Tondelier and Jordan Bardella each answered questions from journalists in turn.
“Jordan Bardella did not want to debate with me,” the leader of the environmentalists attacked, accusing the leader of the RN of being “afraid.”