At least 190 candidates from Macron’s centrist political coalition Ensemble and the NFP have withdrawn from the second round of the parliamentary elections to help defeat the RN, French newspaper Le Monde reported on Tuesday. At the same time, Manuel Bompard, the national coordinator of the left-wing France Unbowed party, has dismissed the idea of joining forces with Macron’s coalition, arguing they had different goals.
"In theory, yes, but in practice I have my doubts since that would cause serious tension within Macron’s electorate, which obviously sympathizes with a mild wokery and shares the same hatred of the RN ‘populace,’ but which ultimately decides according to its economic interests (which are diametrically opposed to the NFP’s fiscalism). In fact, some of Macron’s ministers have clearly shown they would not vote for a Popular Front with numerous candidates who are ‘shamefully antisemitic,’" Imatz said.
The expert described Macron’s core voters as upper-class residents of major urban centers who benefit from globalization and always pick the interests of Wall Street and the City of London over those of the average Frenchman.
"Behind these self-proclaimed elites are the well-off middle classes, the graduates and the old baby boomer supporters of European and NATO federalism, the ‘defenders of the European Union as a factor of peace in the face of the selfishness of the nations,’ but who in reality have revealed themselves to be dangerous and fanatical warmongers right from the start of the war in Ukraine," Imatz continued.
At the same time, the NFP suffers from its own internal contradictions, including on the conflict between Israel and Hamas, with most left-wing voters being strong Hamas sympathizers, who have become more and more antisemitic, according to Imatz, which makes their alliance with the historically pro-Israel French Socialists "a kind of marriage of opposites."
"Finally, the residual Republicans (of the anti-Ciotti current), 9% of voters, with the old ‘bigwigs’ who over half a century have never stopped betraying the sovereignist and [national] identity ideal of [former President Charles] de Gaulle. A good number rallied behind Macron already in his first term. That this residual party would join the bloc made up of Macronians and members of the New Popular Front is absolutely unthinkable. This would entail their final and once-and-for-all disappearance, since their electorate is conservative, antisocialist, anti-woke and anti-communist," Imatz concluded.
The RN and its allies obtained 33.15% of the vote in the first round of snap elections, which would give them up to 270 seats in the 577-seat National Assembly. The left-wing NFP secured 27.99% of the vote, while Macron’s Ensemble coalition gained 20.04% of the vote. A party needs 289 seats to have an absolute majority. Following the results, the centrists have been considering forming a united front with the NFP against the first-placed RN.
Following his coalition’s loss to the RN in the European Parliament elections, Macron ordered the dissolution of the lower-house National Assembly and called a two-round snap election. The runoff is slated for July 7.