The left and the camp of President Emmanuel Macron have only a few hours left on Friday to try to narrow the gap with the far right, still largely the favorite for the first round of legislative elections in France, against a backdrop of constitutional standoff.
The campaign for the first round on Sunday officially ends this Friday at midnight (10 p.m. GMT). The second round will take place on July 7.
Thursday evening, the situation seemed frozen in the polls with the National Rally (far right) largely favored with 36% of voting intentions, ahead of the left-wing New Popular Front alliance which grabbed half a point at 29%, according to the poll. daily Ifop-Fiducial for LCI, Le Figaro and Sud Radio.
Under the banner “Together for the Republic”, the Macronist camp is still behind at 21%, while the traditional right (The Republicans) is relegated to 6.5%.
– “Necessary appeasement” –
This final day of campaigning takes place the day after the controversy created by comments from the leading figure of the far-right party, Marine Le Pen, which suggested a tense cohabitation in the event of a victory for the RN.
Ms Le Pen has in fact reduced the function of “chief of the armies” of the President of the Republic to a simple “honorary title”, comments which were implicitly assumed by Jordan Bardella during the last televised debate on Thursday evening.
From this prerogative of head of the Armed Forces, enshrined in the Constitution, arise the powers in matters of foreign policy and defense that the presidents have retained during previous cohabitations.
During this same debate, the current head of government Gabriel Attal, 35 years old, leader of the outgoing majority, deplored these comments which suggest that “if the National Rally were to win this election, there would be a form dispute between the Prime Minister and the President of the Republic to know who has the role of head of the armies.
“It is a message sent to the world powers, to the whole world, which is a very serious message for the security of the French and for survival,” regretted the young Prime Minister, who has experienced a spectacular rise.
Appointed less than six months ago, Gabriel Attal will try on Friday during a trip near Lyon (southeast) to rally the votes by presenting himself as a choice of reason. On Thursday, he expressed his desire to breathe into French society “the necessary appeasement”.
“I want to bring together the French, I want to bring together all the French, wherever they come from, whatever their past political choice,” Jordan Bardella also affirmed.
He called on the French to trust the RN candidates, “people who deeply love the French, who respect them and, above all, who consider them.”
– Topics that divide –
A rhetoric that Gabriel Attal set out to deconstruct by accusing his far-right rival of presenting “a hundred candidates” who had made “racist, anti-Semitic and homophobic remarks”, which the RN leader rejected outright.
From Brussels, Emmanuel Macron deplored during the night the “uninhibited speech”, “racism or anti-Semitism” in the political debate, and denounced the “arrogance” of the RN which according to him has “already distributed” all the government posts.
Insecurity, immigration, education, there are many subjects that divide the French.
Abroad, these elections are closely scrutinized. Particularly in kyiv, which fears that French support for Ukraine in the face of Russia will crumble if, for the first time since the Second World War, the far right comes to power in this country.
The National Rally is accused of being close to Vladimir Putin's regime.
“We believe that the French will continue to support Ukraine regardless of the political situation,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a written comment to AFP on Thursday.
Jordan Bardella assured Thursday that he would not let “Russian imperialism absorb an allied state like Ukraine.”
But he once again insisted that he would refuse a possible sending of French soldiers to Ukrainian soil, mentioned by Mr Macron, if he became Prime Minister.
“My position is very simple on this conflict (…) It has never changed. It is that of support for Ukraine and avoiding an escalation with Russia which is (…) a nuclear power “, did he declare.
He also reaffirmed his refusal to send long-range missiles “which could (…) directly strike Russian territory and place France and the French in a situation of co-belligerence”.
