Left-wing opponents were eager to unite and the competition was fierce. Right-wing allies attacked each other and accused each other of betrayal. One party leader even locked himself in his office at one point.
Since French President Emmanuel Macron Dissolution of the House of Commons With the election announced ahead of schedule, French politics is like a TV show running in overdrive.
Parties are busy building alliances, coordinating candidates and printing leaflets for what is expected to be one of the shortest election campaigns in modern French history. Voting has been scheduled The elections are June 30 and July 7. Candidates have until Sunday evening to formally file.
French President said He called for the election to respect the will of the people and “clarify” the country’s political landscape as his party Defeat in European elections The far right is on the rise. He is now urging voters to reject extremism and embrace his centrist coalition.
Macron’s gamble has confused voters and forced parties to confront long-standing internal tensions.
For his political right, it led to implosion. For his political left, it fostered a rare unity. Where this will ultimately lead for him and his centrist coalition is unclear. Latest polls The far-right National Rally party, led by Marine Le Pen and her protégés Jordan Badellafar ahead.
“The political landscape in France is changing on a daily basis,” Mojtaba Rahman, an analyst at political risk consultancy Eurasia Group, wrote in a note to clients.
The latest sign came late Thursday when French left-wing parties Put aside months of bickering and agree to work together on the election.
The Socialist Party, the far-left France Inflexible Party, the Green Party and the Communist Party Announced They have established a common platform, excluded their rivals and agreed to govern as a coalition if they can secure a majority in the lower house of parliament.
Notably, former Socialist President François Hollande, Macron’s predecessor, immediately approved the deal, despite disputes between him and other moderate Socialists and the far left.
“For me, the most important thing is that we have achieved unity,” Hollande said. Tell TF1 TV“At a certain point, you transcend the differences and find the essence.”
However, the mainstream right split ahead of the snap election.
France’s conservative Republican Party has been in turmoil since its chairman Eric Jyoti came to power. Breaking a long-standing taboo and reached an electoral agreement with the National Alliance.
The national coalition has agreed not to run candidates against Republicans in Sciotie or other districts, and those districts have agreed to the deal.
Jyoti’s decision has caused such confusion within the party that the past few days have seemed like something taken directly from a political soap opera.
Nearly all of his party’s top brass have called for Mr. Jyoti’s resignation, but on Wednesday he closed the Republicans’ headquarters in central Paris — ostensibly for security reasons but more likely to prevent colleagues from gathering to oust him — and returned to his office.
The party’s top leaders met in a nearby building and unanimously decided to expel Mr. Jyoti from the party. Later, they used a replica of the key to the party headquarters and reopened the door in front of dozens of journalists. Mr. Jyoti was no longer inside.
But he was back on Thursday. Briefly mentioned Journalist released from balcony A strange 13-second videowith stirring instrumental music, depicts him sitting at an empty table; then going to lunch with Mr. Badella.
“I am the party president,” Jyoti told reporters on Thursday, saying the move to oust him was illegal and he would take the case to court. “The power grabbers are those who do not respect our constitution.”
Republican leaders are furious that Sciotti went behind their backs to make a deal with the National Rally. It’s unclear how many Republicans will side with Sciotti. None of the party’s heavyweights support Sciotti.
His move, however, reflects more than a personal whim. For years, the Republicans have been torn between factions that favor Macron’s pro-business, centrist agenda and those that favor the National Rally’s hard-line approach to curbing immigration and fighting crime.
The far right also has its own offshoots. Éric Zemmour is a far-right TV commentator and writer who leads the Reconquista party. Failed presidential campaignalso collapsed before the early election.
Marion MarechalThe National Rally’s leading candidate in the European elections and Marine Le Pen’s niece accused Zemmour of wanting to field her own candidate against the party.
On French television, Zemmour accused Marechal of lying and said she surrounded herself with “professional traitors.” He immediately kicked her and several others out of the party.
“It’s tragic and a little ridiculous,” Gaspard Gantzer, a former adviser to Hollande, said of this week’s political chaos.
“But I think things will settle down by the end of this week,” he said.
Candidates for the snap election have until Sunday evening to formally submit their candidacy, leaving less than two weeks to campaign — time that Ganzel noted is running out for Macron’s gamble.
Many members of Macron’s centrist coalition were surprised by his decision to call early elections and tried to portray the frantic alliance as an act of detachment from voters.
“We are not doing backroom deals in party headquarters,” Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, a member of Macron’s Ennahda party, said Thursday at a campaign event in the northern French city of Boulogne-sur-Mer. “We are working on the ground.”
But some voters questioned why Macron was stirring up political chaos.
Éric Le Goff, 62, who works for the chamber of commerce near the Republican headquarters in Paris, said Sciotti’s dealings with the National Rally were “disgusting and dishonorable” and he called the right-wing mayhem a “clown show.”
But he added, “Frankly, it is not a wise move by the president to subject the French people to a three-week hasty campaign that places us between two extremes,” Le Goff said. “People will feel that he is in denial.”
Katherine Porter and Ségolène Le Stradick Contributed reporting.
