“Jupiterian” French President Emmanuel Macron has written to the French people, reflecting on the failure of the recent snap election to produce a new government, but conveniently forgetting to mention his role in that outcome.
There will be no new Prime Minister or government appointed for some time, President Macron said in a nationally published letter to the people in which he talked up his role as “protector of the higher interests of the Nation”.
Macron congratulated the French people on having rejected the “extreme right” at the ballot box, despite the actual opposite of that having happened. The “extreme right” to which Macron refers — Le Pen’s National Rally (RN), which actually has pretty left-wing economic views, but is in favour of border control — came first place in both rounds of the election in votes cast, rather making a mockery of the President’s claim.
In a result which has inevitably seen questions raised about the suitability of the 1958-vintage French election system for modern voting preferences, RN came first in votes but came third in seats. Macron’s group, meanwhile, came third in votes but second in seats.
Emmanuel Macron Warns of ‘Civil War’ in France if Public Votes for Populists t.co/EHMzEX6IsS
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) June 25, 2024
Having failed in his gambit to strengthen his own group in the French Parliament and now faced with a left wing bloc as the largest group he warned just weeks ago would lead to “civil war” if they got near power, Macron appears to be playing for time to find a way out. Meanwhile, the hard-left leader Mélenchon accuses Macron of trying to subvert democracy — a brave take for a man in his position.
Stating the obvious but skirting around his role in apparently having called the election in a tantrum after his party received a drubbing at last month’s European Union elections, Macron told the nation: “no one won. No political force obtains a sufficient majority on its own and the blocs or coalitions that emerge from these elections are all minorities… As President of the Republic, I am both the protector of the higher interests of the Nation and the guarantor of the institutions and of respect for your choice… Last Sunday, you called for the invention of a new French political culture. For you, I will ensure this. In your name, I will be its guarantor.”
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