The youthful leader of France’s extremist right-wing party, Rassemblement National (RN), Jordan Bardella, 28, asserts that his time is drawing near. He contends that the upcoming double-round elections commencing Sunday will grant RN the 289-seat stronghold in the National Assembly. This could compel President Macron to divide his authority with Bardella, creating a fraught cohabitation scenario where Bardella may serve as prime minister.
Surveys convey RN is close, yet not there yet. Nonetheless, capturing 34% approval, they are considerably ahead of Nouveau Front Populaire, the liberal left alliance (28%), while Macron’s Ensemble (Together) group is lagging behind with 20%.
Macron’s arrogant risk to instigate an election to confront the ultra-right seems to have been completely ineffective, having yielded no tangible shift in popular sentiment. A deadlock in parliament seems plausible, as parties from the left, centre, and right are resolute in their refusal to support Bardella’s proposal to serve. Bardella has signalled that he will only accept the nomination if a secure parliamentary majority can be guaranteed to withstand the turbulence that implementing RN policies will inevitably cause. Establishing the party’s capability and effectiveness to rule before the ultimate goal, the 2027 presidential election, will undoubtedly be challenging.
Macron’s Presidential authority to appoint a prime minister puts him in a pinch. With constitutional constraints preventing him from initiating another legislative election for a year, Macron might be compelled to assemble a technocratic government led by a respected figure. However, without a parliamentary majority, such an arrangement is predicted to be highly unstable and ineffectual at passing budgets or instating reforms.
RN continues its divisive and dangerous trajectory. Despite a decade devoted to purging the party’s blatant bias, their campaign continues to propagate Islamophobia and xenophobia. Their agenda includes provisions for shuttering mosques and expelling allegedly radicalised imams in their fight against “Islamist ideologies”. They also plan to outlaw apparel, like veils, that they view as conspicuous demonstrations of Islamist ideology.
Bardella has pledged to prohibit French citizens holding dual nationalities from sensitive public positions and abolish automatic citizenship for individuals born in France to non-native parents. The Muslim population, which makes up six million of France’s citizenry, undoubtedly has valid concerns about the prospective RN government.
This means that other EU member nations may observe a party, extremely resistant to European unification, assume government powers. This entity is bent on retrieving what they consider ‘French’ allocations from the EU’s finances, they are outspoken in their opposition to the union’s environmental plans and responsibilities regarding asylum seekers, and manifest significant accord with Russia over Ukraine. The stakes are incredibly high as a country that has played a pivotal role in the EU’s evolution prepares for elections.