The main figure of the far-right Marine Le Pen, also making voters, promised to form a “government of national unity” if the party takes power in the legislative elections.
Macron on Sunday stunned France by calling the polls after Le Pen’s far-right National Rally (RN) scored more than double the centrist alliance’s results in last week’s European elections.
Left-wing outfits including France Unbowed (LFI), the Socialist, Communist and Green parties on Thursday agreed to an electoral alliance called the New Popular Front.
On Friday, they unveiled a joint manifesto, whose main measures include jettisoning controversial immigration and pension reforms if Macron wins the polls to open on June 30, with a second round on July 7.
He also promised to “rise to the climate challenge” – without agreeing whether to continue the modernization of France’s nuclear fleet – and to continue to support Ukraine against the Russian invasion.” , or us,” Greens party leader Marine Tondelier told reporters. The coalition won the support of left-wing politician Raphael Glucksmann, 44, who led the Socialist-backed list in the European elections.
“We cannot leave France to the Le Pen family,” he told French broadcaster Inter.
The name of the alliance is a nod to the Popular Front, a political alliance founded in France in 1936 to fight fascism.
Opinion polls suggest that Le Pen’s party will increase its parliamentary presence with a majority of 88 of the current 577 seats.
He took over the National Front – founded in 1972 by former SS members – from his father in 2011, changed its name and stood three times as a presidential candidate.
– ‘Hate and discrimination’ –
It is unclear who will lead the New Popular Front and become prime minister if it wins.
Glucksmann rejected LFI’s abrasive leader Jean-Luc Melenchon.
Francois Hollande, the former Socialist president, also backed the new union, saying left-wing forces had “overcome their differences”.
Taking to the campaign trail in Pas-de-Calais in northern France, Le Pen claimed that the RN could win the election and form a “government of national unity”.
“We have to pull France out of the rut,” said the 55-year-old, who is expected to run for a fourth term in the 2027 presidential election, adding that the country was in a “catastrophic situation”.
The right suffered a setback on Friday in the form of an Instagram post from one of France’s top YouTubers, Squeezie – aka Lucas Hauchard, 28.
“I never wanted to talk to you about politics,” he told his nearly nine million Instagram followers.
“But I firmly oppose extremist ideologies that preach hatred and discrimination beyond all political positions,” he said, in a post that garnered nearly 900,000 likes within hours.
– ‘So wrong’-
Other right-wing forces were engulfed in combat.
Eric Ciotti, the leader of the conservative Republicans, broke a historic taboo this week, announcing his party would form an electoral alliance with the RN.
Other party leaders immediately expelled him, confirming the decision in a second vote on Friday according to party sources.
Ciotti insisted he remained chairman and challenged his resignation in court. A court verdict is expected on Friday evening.
The 28-year-old RN chairman, Jordan Bardella, said the right-wing party and the Republicans would field joint candidates in 70 of France’s 577 parliamentary constituencies, calling it a “historic agreement”.
Macron remained defiant, defending his decision to dissolve parliament and call a snap election.
Speaking at the G7 summit in southern Italy on Thursday, he said G7 partners praised the move.
“They all said: ‘This is courage'”, Macron told reporters.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Thursday accused Macron of trying to score points with voters at home, saying it was “very wrong” to use the G7 summit for “campaigning”.
On the economic front, the French stock market booked its worst week since March 2022 and the first week of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, with the CAC 40 index down 6.23 percent between the election announcement and the close of trading on Friday.
