Marine Le Pen, de facto leader of France’s hard-right National Rally (RN) party has said she believed President Emmanuel Macron’s tenure was nearing its end.
“I am preparing for an early presidential election, as a precaution, given Emmanuel Macron’s fragility and the few institutional levers he has left,” she said in an interview with Le Parisien newspaper published on December 17.
The RN presidential candidate said Macron may be forced to end his presidency before its due date in 2027. That, she said, was due to possible disagreements between his parliamentary central bloc and the newly appointed Prime Minister François Bayrou, or to France’s difficult financial situation.
According to a poll published on December 11, Le Pen is leading the race for the next French presidential elections due in April, 2027.
She is, though, also involved in a case of alleged embezzlement of EU funds and therefore an early election could help her avoid being rendered ineligible should she be found guilty prior to the ballot.
According to Le Pen, the President has been weakened: “Emmanuel Macron, it’s over, or almost over. My statement is not intended to be cruel; it’s an institutional reality.”
“Emmanuel Macron has even lost his power to appoint the Prime Minister, with a PM who essentially appointed himself. There’s not much left for him,” she added, referring to the tensions between Macron and Bayrou before the nomination.
On December 13, the day of the nomination, Macron had called Bayrou to inform him that he would not be appointed prime minister. He then invited him to the Élysée Palace to offer him the position of deputy prime minister in a government that was to be led by Roland Lescure as PM, as was confirmed by French media.
Following Bayrou’s refusal of the deputy role and threats to leave Macron’s coalition, the President appeared to reconsider and installed him as prime minister instead.
Le Pen also argued that Macron had become isolated in the global arena.
“By his own doing, he has lost his footing everywhere on the international stage and has alienated everyone. He no longer holds any influence within the European Union and has been humiliated in the worst possible way by his ‘creation’ [European Commission President Ursula] von der Leyen,” she said. That appeared to be in reference to France and Macron’s so-far failed attempts to block the European Union-Mercosur trade deal.
Since 2017, RN has been on a steady rise in France, gaining more public support and party members have become confident it will be the next ruling party in government.
In a Brussels Signal interview on November 14, Phillipe Olivier, special adviser to Le Pen, claimed RN “will be in power by the end of 2025”.
Macron has looked as though he fully intends to save his leadership. He dismissed calls for his resignation in an address to the French on December 5.
Yet the President’s future could be in jeopardy if the government collapsed a second time following its toppling on December 4.
Macron was said to be hoping that, unlike the deposed previous prime minister Michel Barnier, Bayrou would be able to avoid a no-confidence vote until at least July, when France will hold a new parliamentary election.
That is despite Bayrou having already come under criticism for his handling of the Mayotte cyclone disaster earlier in December.
France’s left-wing opposition has called Prime Minister François Bayrou “illegitimate” for skipping a Mayotte crisis meeting in Paris to attend a municipal council session in Pau, where he is mayor. https://t.co/jS6WKcyTxJ
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) December 17, 2024
