As France gears up for crucial elections, tensions escalate between President Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen of the National Rally party. Le Pen accuses Macron of orchestrating last-minute administrative appointments to thwart her party’s potential victory, dubbing it an “administrative coup d’état.” Macron’s office denies the allegations, dismissing them as politically motivated. With the National Rally poised to potentially secure an absolute majority in the National Assembly, the French political landscape is in turmoil, as alliances form and break amidst accusations of undermining democracy and strategic maneuvering. The outcome of the upcoming runoff elections on July 7 hangs in the balance, with implications for France’s future direction at stake.
French President Emmanuel Macron’s office stated on Wednesday urging “cool-headedness” and “moderation” toward the National Rally (RN) party and its supporters, following Marine Le Pen’s accusation on Tuesday that Macron is leading an “administrative coup d’état” to make last-minute appointments to create roadblocks if Jordan Bardella becomes prime minister.
“It’s a form of administrative coup d’état,” Le Pen said. He said that Macron was attempting and “counter the vote of the electors, the result of the elections, by appointing people to [him], so that they prevent, within the State, from being able to lead the policy that the French want.”
“For people who give lessons in democracy to the whole world, it’s still surprising to act in this way,” she continued. “In these cases, it shouldn’t have been dissolved.”
However, opponents of Le Pen and those attempting to block her party, which is widely referred to as the French ‘far right,’ have maintained that a summer government leadership shake-up “has always been done.”
Below is a short list of Macron’s recent quick appointments, as reported by Le Monde:
- a new military governor of Paris
- a new chief of staff of the Air Force
- new director of the European Union at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
- three ambassadors were designated
- new administrators appointed over academic regions
Macron’s office issued a statement calling the accusation unfounded, inaccurate, and politically driven.
“For sixty-six years, there have been appointments and movements every week, particularly in the summer, regardless of the political moments experienced by our institutions, and there is no plan that any of these provisions could change in the coming months,” the statement from the presidency said.
These tit-for-tat denunciations come just days before the RN might win an absolute majority in the National Assembly in a run-off election on July 7. To summarize, here is how the first round of legislative elections went last Sunday:
- RN:33.1% of the vote
- New Popular Front: 28%
- Macron’s Ensemble coalition: 20%
However, in a rare moment of collaboration, France’s left-wing and centrist parties are joining together and pulling out all the stops, as the French political establishment is currently engaged in furious horse-trading. In areas where three candidates qualified for the runoffs, the third-place finisher may withdraw to increase the prospects of another mainstream party beating the far right.
According to Bloomberg, “Macron’s group, the left-wing New Popular Front and other parties opposed to the National Rally strategically pulled 223 candidates out of constituencies with more than two people in Sunday’s runoff vote to avoid splitting opposition to the far right.” The outcome will be that “Le Pen’s party and its allies will be on the ballot in 214 districts where rivals have teamed up,” according to the report.
“I believe the National Rally can win the election on Sunday with an absolute majority,” Bardella, 28, who is set to become France’s youngest prime minister in history, told BFM Television earlier this week. “I plan on putting together a government of national unity, based on this absolute majority, to carry out the recovery project that I presented to the country.” Meanwhile, the RN has positioned itself as France’s best hope for preserving true democracy and avoiding the “chaos of the far-left”—and everything it represents, from porous borders to further military engagement in Ukraine.
Recently, GreatGameIndia reported how the President of France, Emmanuel Macron, has declared a state of emergency to quell deadly riots in New Caledonia, which erupted following a vote in the National Assembly of France allowing those who have lived in New Caledonia for ten years to vote in provincial elections.
