Elections in France: on the hunt for voters, with a harsh exchange of accusations between the government and the opposition

Twenty-five million French will have to come out of abstention decide on the ballot of the legislative elections On Sunday the fate of the Ensemble, the party of Emmanuel Macron, or the far-left alliance Nupes, formed by Jean Luc Mélenchon, to proclaim himself prime minister. Four days remain to convince them.

Record abstention rate will solve if “old politics is dead”, as Macron has promoted, or if it’s back to all rebirth and it can obtain a majority in the National Assembly and force it to coexist with the extreme left, at the hands of Mélenchon, a former radicalized socialist education minister.

The run-off campaign has been relaunched in France. They have to break this deadlock equation: the coalition of Macron won with 25.75 percent of the votes against Mélenchon’s alliance, with 25.66 percent in the first round.

“I invited the people to stand up”, intimated Jean Luc Mélenchon, known as the “tribune of the republic”. “This is the moment when you have full powers to change everything. If you don’t want to know more about Macron, if it’s a referendum on his politics, there is only one thing to do: vote for us, “he said.

cross-accusations

President Macron’s centrist coalition has accused his left-wing opponents of “Liars and anarchists”when a frenzied attempt to win a majority in parliamentary elections began.

The New People’s Social and Ecological Union (NUPES), an alliance of left-wing parties, responded by stating that Macron’s ministers they had manipulated the outcome of the first round The poll on Sunday, to make it look like they won the popular vote when they lost it.

Ensemble, Macron’s coalition, is set to win the most seats in Sunday’s second round, according to polls. But it is possible that they will not reach an absolute majority. The insults flew, after Ensemble came out of the first round neck to neck with the left-wing alliance NUPES, led by 70-year-old Jean-Luc Mélenchon.

Mélenchon accused the Interior Minister of manipulating the data from the first round. “They did all of this to create an illusion”said Mélenchon, who is campaigning to be appointed prime minister if the left wins the parliamentary elections. “We can’t have the morals of a banana republic,” he insisted.

The vehemence of the attacks was a measure of just how much is at stake on both sides ahead of Sunday’s second round.

Who will have the majority?

Macron, 44, he seemed to have the world at his feet after winning a second term, when he defeated Marine Le Pen, 53, a right-wing populist, in the second round of the April presidential election.

However, his poor and late performance in the first round of parliamentary elections means his party he is no longer sure of winning all 289 seats, it is necessary to obtain an absolute majority in the National Assembly. The lack of a majority could force the president to negotiate with rival parties to get the legislation passed.

By contrast, Mélenchon, an anti-NATO populist often compared to Jeremy Corbyn and Cristina Kirchner, who admires Chávez and speaks Spanish with a Sevillian accenthas enjoyed a resurgence in his fortunes after being narrowly eliminated in the first round of the April presidential election.

Formed a coalition with other left-wing parties, who transformed the French political scene, to offer you a platform from which to expose a program that includes freezing the price of essential assets and imposing a 100 percent tax rate on inheritances over € 12 million.

With his old and cunning tricks as a seasoned politician, he spawned a third presidential round and he wants Macron to appoint him premierif it obtains a majority in the National Assembly.

Electoral institutes say Mélenchon’s alliance is unlikely to win a parliamentary majority. But he can win enough seats to bind Macron’s hands.

They benefit from Le Pen

Macron’s ministers responded with ferocious attacks on Mélenchon and her allies. This was stated by Amélie de Montchalin, 56, the minister of ecology they were “far left anarchists”who wanted to “weaken our institutions”.

Stanislaus Guérini, 40, minister for the transformation of the civil service, said: “His project consists only in tax increases.”

However, ministers found themselves on the defensive of claims that, in their efforts to remove the threat from the left, the macronists were “opening the door” to the populist right. The allegations were explosive, as Macron sought to present himself as a barrier, protecting France from the rise of populism in Europe.

The controversy arose after several ministers suggested Mélenchon’s alliance it was as dangerous as Marine Le Pen’s National Rally and urged voters to avoid approving either. Gabriel Attal, 33, budget minister, said both Mélenchon and Le Pen are “anti-Europeans and promoters of economic policies that would ruin the country”.

The stance ignited the fury in the Mélenchon camp, which noted that left-wing voters had leaned on Macron in his presidential duel with Le Pen. They were the “Né” (neither one nor the other) of Mélenchon those who named Macron president in the presidential ballot.

“Emmanuel Macron invited us to defeat the far right by pointing out the dangers it represented for the country. This is what we have done, “said Bruno Bernard, 51, head of the council of Greater Lyon in central France, supporter of Mélenchon.” And now those close to Emmanuel Macron himself are opening the doors to the far right. It is irresponsible, incomprehensible “.

Macron’s ministers seemed unsure how to respond to the criticism, centered on 58 constituencies where contenders to the national grouping will face left-wing candidates in the second round. They initially suggested that voters should abstain.

in this ballot Marine le Pen can grow strong and carry seven to 40 benchesputting himself behind conservative Republicans.

The future of Nupes

If you don’t get the relative majority, NUPES can disintegrate because it is more of an election machine. Socialists, Greens, Communists, Socialists and undisciplined France have their own fiefdoms.

The NUPES campaign is old fashioned: door to door in the suburbs of Paris, sms, social networks and young people. These are your main goals. Young people love “Mélancho”, as they call it, even if they hate the old politics. But those who did not go to the polls must vote: those between 18 and 34 years old.

Mélenchon is in his door-to-door salsa campaign. He uses the republican oratory, convinces young people and communists, is gestural, persuasive and knows how to listen. “Matignon is not far away. He depends on you, “he tells the voters. A difficult opponent for the macronists, so antiseptic and postmodern.

If the far right advances, a group of moderate socialists, such as supporters of former President François Hollande, who have more in common with Social Democratic Prime Minister Elizabeth Borne than with the abrasive former Socialist Mélenchon, They will likely support her reforms in place and let her rule.

Macron does not want to be personally involved in the campaign. He will travel this week to Kiev with Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi and German Chancellor Olaf Scholtz and will visit Moldova and Romania, with his eyes on the war.

PB