Given the results of France’s legislative elections – which include the far-right Rassemblement National party and its allies obtaining 143 seats (up on the previous 88), dozens of seats lost by Emmanuel Macron’s Renaissance party, and a president who became regarded with scorn – it would have been reasonable to expect that Macron’s political camp might be tempted to experiment with humility. Even if only for just a short while, the time needed to understand the lessons inflicted by the urns. But that assumption does not take into account the self-importance and smugness of those who never doubt.
Since the results of the second and final round of voting emerged on Sunday evening, numerous figures of ‘Macronism’, a term used in the widest sense given that it is increasingly difficult to define, have been attempting to plunge public debate into a curious parallel reality, one in which they have evolved ever since Emmanuel Macron was first elected as president seven years ago. It is a somewhat ethereal reality, in which the debacle of the elections was not a debacle at all.
Instead of taking good note of his political bankruptcy, Macron has managed to congratulate himself about the situation, commissioning a few plaudits. “The clarification that the president had wished for has unfolded as he wanted,” commented one of Macron’s entourage, contacted on Sunday evening. Another pronounced: “Three years before the presidential elections are due, Marine Le Pen is no longer at all credible for winning them. Thank you dissolution!” It is almost as if they were miffed that the leftwing alliance, the Nouveau Front Populaire, which obtained the most seats of any bloc, had not expressed its gratitude to the Macron camp.
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To observe people who have just suffered a dire defeat but who behave as if they had everything under control is always a bit awkward. Yet, since Sunday, we’ve heard Stéphane Séjourné, the outgoing foreign affairs minister and secretary general of Macron’s Renaissance party talk of his “preconditions for any discussion” about the formation of a working majority in parliament. Over the past 48 hours, Macron’s centre-right ally François Bayrou, leader of the MoDem party, has dismissed any suggestion of reorienting his political programme, while Édouard Philippe, who was Macron’s first prime minister, and who leads the Horizons party also allied to the French president, positioned himself as the linchpin of what he confusingly called “the most resolved enthusiasms”. On Sunday, the parties of Séjourné, Bayrou and Philippe had lost, respectively, 73, 18 and eight seats.
If the prime minister, Gabriel Attal, who remains in charge of a caretaker government at Macron’s behest, insists his political camp is “well and truly alive”, it is nevertheless clear to most people that ‘Macronism’ is well and truly dead. The only ones who have not understood that are the Macronists themselves – or at least those who did not lose their seat thanks to the leftwing alliance’s strategy of standing its candidates down when a centre-right rival had a better chance of beating the far-right candidate. Imagining that they still have the upper hand, the surviving Macronists are playing at being bouncers of a political club, designating who among the leftwing alliance, the Nouveau Front Populaire (NFP), are deserved of joining them in their project and ideas.
Giving lessons to the Left
The phenomenon is hardly new. It began with Emmanuel Macron himself as of 2017, when he chose not to recognise the conditions of his election – like those of his re-election in 2022 – in face of far-right candidate Marine Le Pen, and which was mainly thanks to votes cast for him not in approval, but to keep the far-right away from power. Instead, he has insisted that he has simply gone about applying his programme. Still today, and despite the repeated failures, his supporters follow his example, persuading themselves that the centre had been overwhelmingly the main force to emerge from the parliamentary poll, and that the score of the leftwing alliance was down to voting to keep out the far-right – a suggestion that is supported by no study of the voting patterns, but of course those in parallel reality could not care less.
As the laborious process of identifying who could viably form a government began this week, the Macronists, still full of haughty self-belief, have been laying down conditions to the leftwing alliance which came ahead of them in the elections. Maud Bregeon, an MP for Macron’s Renaissance party, declared that she would not take part “in a coalition that included [radical-left party] La France Insoumise or [Green party] Europe Écologie-Les Verts”, both of which are part of the NFP.
Meanwhile, outgoing interior minister Gérald Darmanin magnanimously commented: “The Socialist Party must be asked if it would accept to break-off with La France Insoumise and in such a case, in my opinion, we can always discuss about major issues.” As if he was in a position to lecture the Left which, standing down their candidate in his constituency where he faced a far-right challenge, allowed him to be re-elected. It is almost laughable.
On the subject of bad jokes, economy and finance minister Bruno Le Maire came out with one of his own witticisms when he pointed to the threat of a “financial crisis” and “economic decline” if the electoral manifesto of the Nouveau Front Populaire was applied. Le Maire’s record in charge of the country’s finances is hardly flattering, but he nevertheless congratulated himself with another warning that the programme of the Left would “destroy the results of the policies which [the government has] applied over the past seven years and which has given France work, attractivity and factories”.
In denial
In the Macronist ecosystem, there reigns a denial of reality. On Monday, he who “has thrown us into a political instability that is seriously detrimental for France” – to quote Gérard Larcher, the conservative leader of the Senate – asked Gabriel Attal to remain as prime minister “for the moment” in order to “ensure the stability of the country”. The master of chaos thinks he is still the master full stop.
For the moment, we have no clear idea of where events will lead, but we do know that Macron intends to use what little he has left to increase the pressure on his political opponents. He wants to take his time before appointing a new prime minister (which is his responsibility under the French constitution). According to one of his entourage, he is waiting to see the final “structuration of the new Assembly” before taking “the necessary decisions”. The truth behind that is that he is banking on divisions opening-up within the leftwing alliance, just as he did when he dissolved parliament in early June.
These cynical calculations are quite alarming for those who remember that the French president was ready to propose to Jordan Berdella, chairman of the Rassemblement National, that he form a government, even if the far-right party gained but a relative majority. But what was to be offered to the far-right has suddenly become difficult regarding the Left which in the end won the election. By claiming that the victory of the Nouveau Front Populaire was the result of votes to keep out the far-right, the Macronists are conveniently and hastily forgetting that there was also a vote in favour of a model for society, and that their model was soundly dismissed.
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- The original French version of this op-ed article can be found here.
English version by Graham Tearse