'This is clearly a gamble and many think it's too risky'

FRANCE 24 English

Visit our website: http://www.france24.com  Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FRANCE24.English  Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/France24_en

Transcript

00:00 Well this is clearly a gamble and many on the left and even in his own ranks and in the government think it's too risky.

00:08 Only a couple of weeks or so to go before the parliamentary elections after the president decided to dissolve parliament.

00:17 And that's very little time to actually campaign, little time to overturn these results.

00:24 With the far-right national rally of Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella getting more than twice the amount of votes that Valérie Ayer for president Macron's side got.

00:35 So will they have time to overturn those results? At the same time did president Emmanuel Macron really have a choice?

00:44 He wants to put the French people in front of their responsibilities. Do they want to be governed by the French far-right?

00:51 They will have to say that in the coming ballot.

00:55 And also the French president was struggling in parliament to pass his laws because his side did not hold an absolute majority.

01:04 Therefore he and his troops needed to conclude alliances on such or such measure in order to pass laws and it was extremely tricky for him.

01:16 President Emmanuel Macron said it loud and clear yesterday there's a need for clarity, for harmony, for the French people to have their say.

01:24 And this is what's happening with these parliamentary elections called for June 30th and July 7th.

01:31 Now the news has taken everybody aback but surely the national rally are sensing opportunity after their electoral exploits yesterday.

01:43 Well let me tell you Oliver, shortly after the results came in yesterday the national rally sent a statement to journalists saying

01:51 we are ready to build a majority to rule France.

01:56 And that says it all really. The French far-right has never been so close to getting into power.

02:02 They believe that they can finally do it, that they can win a majority, that they can be the leading party in France.

02:11 They were the leading party in the recent European elections and they now need to do the same thing in the parliamentary ones.

02:20 For the French far-right, this is first and foremost the sign, these recent results, that the French people have had enough of President Macron,

02:31 have had enough of their policies and the French far-right already saying that if they get into power they will stop the rise in energy prices.

02:40 They will overturn President Emmanuel Macron's pension reform and many of his reforms.

02:47 For the French far-right, it's a historic result that they've got in these European elections

02:53 and now they need to campaign hard in order to capitalise on that and be the winning side in the parliamentary elections.

03:01 And it's not just the far-right that Emmanuel Macron is unpopular with in France.

03:08 The left don't particularly like him either. How is the left reacting to this snap decision?

03:15 Yesterday, André Glucksmann, who represents the Socialist Party, said it was a crazy decision, it was the wrong decision

03:25 and that President Emmanuel Macron was basically placing France in the hands of the French far-right.

03:33 And then this morning you've got the boss of the Socialist Party, Olivier Ruffin, and other figures, and Olivier Faure,

03:39 as well as other figures like François Ruffin for the radical left France Unbound, calling for a Front Populaire, a new left-wing front.

03:49 It would be a coalition, social and environmental coalition, bringing together all parties on the left to form a bloc

03:58 and to stand united in these coming parliamentary elections.

04:03 The aim of that is very clear, stand a chance to win the elections, get a left-wing figure in the seat of the Prime Minister instead of Gabriel Attal.

04:13 Anyway, I can tell you here in France this morning, many reactions to this decision to dissolve Parliament.

04:20 The National Assembly just behind me, new seats up for grabs. That will be at the end of the month and there's very little time to campaign.

Category

Transcript

Be the first to comment

Recommended