President Emmanuel Macron’s call for snap elections shocks France

PARIS: French President Emmanuel Macron rolled the dice on his political future on Sunday (June 9), calling snap legislative elections for later this month after he was trounced in the European Union vote by Marine Le Pen’s far-right party.

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Macron’s shock decision set off a political earthquake in France, offering the far-right a shot at real political power after years on the sidelines and threatening to neuter his presidency three years before it ends.

In recent years, Macron has been attempting to present himself as the only alternative to stop the far-right and Le Pen, his main rival during his two presidential election bids.

Macron became France’s youngest leader since Napoleon in 2017, pitching himself as a political outsider who would break the old left-right dichotomy, make France more investor-friendly and make the European Union stronger.

Then, Macron, a pro-European Union centrist, easily beat Le Pen when voters rallied behind him to keep her party out of power.

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He seemed destined for a steady climb up the ranks of the French establishment when he decided to apply his skills as a deal-making investment banker to the world of politics. But since striking out on his own in August 2016 after only two years as a minister, he has tapped into widespread disenchantment to broadcast a strong anti-establishment message.

He cut taxes for big business and the wealthy, loosened labour laws, and marketed France Inc. as a start-up nation, but anti-government ‘yellow vest’ protests and then the COVID-19 pandemic forced him to slow his reform plans.

The French leader provoked months-long violent protests as he doubled down on his reform drive, with the main plank of his manifesto being an increase in the minimum pension age to 65 from 62.

Macron’s Renaissance party currently has 169 lower house lawmakers, out of a total of 577. The National Rally (RN) [formerly National Front] has 88.

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If the RN wins a majority, Macron would still direct defense and foreign policy, but would lose the power to set the domestic agenda, from economic policy to security.

The lower house elections would be called for June 30, with a second-round vote on July 7.