President Macron is “finished” and will soon be forced to quit, paving the way for an early presidential election, Marine Le Pen has said.
The National Rally leader’s comments to Le Parisien newspaper raised speculation that she might be prepared to join the push for a second confidence vote in the government that is expected to be formed this week by François Bayrou, Macron’s new prime minister.
She had previously been thought unlikely to back a push to topple another government so soon after the ousting of Michel Barnier, the former prime minister.
Such a move would risk undermining her image as a responsible politician of the right, carefully cultivated over more than a decade to convince mainstream voters that she would act in the national interest.
Le Pen, however, said that Macron had lost all authority both at home and abroad. She pointed out that Bayrou had reportedly forced Macron to name him as prime minister by threatening to pull his party out of the presidential coalition if he appointed anyone else.
“Emmanuel Macron is finished, or nearly,” Le Pen said. “[He] has even lost his power to appoint the prime minister, who appointed himself.”
She said that Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, whom Macron helped to secure the post, had also embarrassed him by overriding his objections to an EU trade deal with the Mercosur bloc of South American countries.
“He has lost his grip internationally. He has fallen out with everyone. He no longer has any influence in the European Union and was humiliated in the worst manner by his ‘creature’, Mrs Von der Leyen,” Le Pen said.