The President of France’s National Rally (RN) party, Jordan Bardella, says his political movement will support candidates from the centre-right Republican party in the June 30 elections as part of what could become a formal electoral alliance.
Bardella said on June 11 that the RN was working with some members of the Republican Party and urged more to come onboard.
“I call on the Republicans to stop being [French President] Emmanuel Macron’s political crutch,” he said.
Le message que je lance aux Français, c'est de rester mobilisés : l'enjeu de ces élections législatives, c'est de choisir une nouvelle majorité, et un nouveau gouvernement pour redresser le pays.
Si vous voulez rétablir l'ordre et l'autorité, venez à nos côtés. @RTLFrance pic.twitter.com/6sUzTWUp8f
— Jordan Bardella (@J_Bardella) June 11, 2024
Bardella’s announcement came after the de facto leader of the party, Marine Le Pen, said she was willing to stand down candidates in constituencies where the Republican Party was also running.
“We have a historic opportunity to enable the national camp to get France back on track, and to do that we need to be able to bring together and open up to men and women of goodwill who are patriots and who disagree with President Macron’s policies,” she said on June 10.
“We are working on a charter with political agreements.
“If the French have confidence in us, Jordan Bardella will be Prime Minister. We will implement the policies desired by the French and prepare for our accession to the presidency of the Republic,” she declared.
The hard-right RN currently has 88 MPs in the French Parliament and to achieve an outright majority it needs 201 more.
Le camp national a atteint le score historique de 40%. Face à la gravité de la situation de notre pays, j’ai tenu à rencontrer @MLP_officiel et @J_Bardella pour saisir l’opportunité de construire une coalition de gouvernement. #UnionNationale pic.twitter.com/4Cv7HabgCI
— Marion Maréchal (@MarionMarechal) June 10, 2024
The other French hard-right party, Reconquête, is also cosying up to the RN. President Eric Zemmour hinted that his party “will play its part in the union”.
Marion Maréchal, a member of Reconquête and niece of Le Pen, called for an agreement with RN.
French left-wing parties, meanwhile, have reached a provisional agreement on a so-called “Popular Front”.
Leaders and key figures from France’s left-wing parties have rallied for a unified “Front populaire” to take on the hard-right at the recently announced snap election later this month. https://t.co/wSJZh3ezOE
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) June 10, 2024
“We are calling for the creation of a new Popular Front bringing together all the forces of the Left, humanists, trade unions, associations and citizens,” they said in a joint statement.
The candidates under the Popular Front for the upcoming French elections “will support a breakthrough programme detailing the measures to be taken in the first 100 days of the Popular Front government”, the statement added.
The Left candidates were registered in the previous parliament under NUPES (a former left-wing coalition). They currently have 150 MPs and need 139 more for an absolute majority.
Some 577 elected members will make up the next French National Assembly. If a political party or coalition obtains at least 289 deputies, it has an absolute majority.
Macron faces a difficult task. In 2022, French citizens gave his Renaissance party a governing minority with 250 MPs. It subsequently had to find support among the Republicans.
With the Left unifying and the RN opening the door to the Republicans, the president’s party is caught in tight spot.
According to the latest polls by OpinionWay published on June 10 for the legislative elections, 31 per cent of eligible French citizens are willing to vote for the RN.
The French left-wing coalition polled at 23 per cent and Macron’s party gathered 18 per cent. The Republicans only attracted 8 per cent of the vote with Reconquête coming in on 5 per cent in the polling.
