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Macron’s ‘total farce’: France flirts with first far-right government since World War II

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5 months ago

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Macron’s ‘total farce’: France flirts with first far-right government since World War II

Whatever the outcome, Macron’s 7-year political experiment with pro-business policies aimed at boosting the economy and reforming the bloated welfare state will be dented. He has ruled out resigning.

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France was deciding Sunday whether to punish President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist government and hand control of its National Assembly to a far-right political party for the first time in the country’s modern history.

The parliamentary vote could upend French politics and have implications for the European Union and NATO. It takes place against the backdrop of deep anxiety in France over immigration and inflation-hit household budgets. The election has also cast a shadow over the Paris Olympic Games, which kick off in less than three weeks.

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“This vote is about putting France back on the right track,” said Jonathan Rodrigues, 29, a butcher from Seine-et-Marne, southeast of Paris, who supports the far-right National Rally party, which is jointly led by Marine Le Pen and her 28-year-old protégé Jordan Bardella. Rodrigues said Macron’s government has been a “total farce.”

Voting finishes at 8 p.m. (2 p.m. ET), when exit-poll projections will be released.

The National Rally party scored historic gains in a first-round vote a week ago, raising the specter of France’s first far-right government since World War II. The party’s origins trace back to France’s pro-Nazi Vichy government.

Le Pen has long argued that France has been held back by EU policies on everything from farming to border security. She’s claimed NATO has been a destabilizing alliance that has antagonized Russia. She’s repeatedly expressed admiration for Russian President Vladimir Putin and endorsed former Donald Trump ahead of his 2016 election. French media have spent years investigating Le Pen’s financial links to Moscow, claims she strenuously denies.

France decides: Why is the far-right so popular?

Opinion polls forecast Le Pen’s party will probably win the most votes Sunday but still likely fall short of an absolute majority in France’s 577-seat National Assembly.

That outcome could mean the election ends in deadlock, a so-called hung Parliament − a chaotic scenario where the National Rally is the dominant legislative force in the National Assembly but unable to pass laws without forming ad-hoc coalitions with other parties. Another outcome could see center, center-right or left-wing parties join forces to bloc the National Rally’s ability to form a government and appoint Bardella as prime minister.

France splits its political executive role between president and prime minister. The former traditionally oversees foreign policy and defense; the latter has a more domestic portfolio covering issues such as education, social affairs and immigration. The line between the two is sometimes blurred.

Either way, Macron’s seven-year political experiment with pro-business policies aimed at boosting France’s economy and reforming its bloated welfare state will be dented − though his role as president is not formally in jeopardy. The 46-year-old former banker and management consultant, known internationally in recent years for his non-stop efforts to garner diplomatic attention for Ukraine since Russia’s invasion, has ruled out resigning. His term does not expire before 2027, when Le Pen would become eligible for the presidency.

Raising the retirement age, solidarity with Israel

In France, Macron has angered many for his attempts to reform the nation’s public services and welfare policies, including its retirement age. He also drawn ire from left-wing voters critical of him for pushing through legislation with measures aimed at reforming residency and citizenship tests that won the approval of the far right. He has expressed “unreserved solidarity” with Israel over its war with Hamas in Gaza and called for ceasefires, positions that have enraged Muslims and Jews alike in a country where both those groups have high populations.

They see him as “elitist, arrogant” and out of touch with the France’s lower and middle classes, said Jean-Yves Camus, an expert on far-right politics at the Paris-based French Institute for International and Strategic Affairs,

Camus said that if the National Rally is able to form a government it will “change the reality for millions of people living in France.” One example: Nationally Rally wants to bar dual nationals from certain state jobs in France. It also wants to scrap nationality rights for children born and raised in France by foreign parents.

Bardella, if appointed, would become France’s youngest ever prime minister. He is a charismatic telegenic speaker who has appealed to French voters who feel alienated by Macron’s centrist approach.

Still, Camus said that while many far-right voters in France claim that they see in Le Pen and Bardella politicians “who speak common sense” on issues from the economy to immigration, he believes that they often fail to take into account that “politics in a country like France, which is so divided, is really difficult.”

“What is common sense when it comes to immigration?” he said.

“You can’t just put borders up or a fence up and say, ‘we’re not allowing any more immigrants.'”

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