Macron’s anti-Brexit pitbull loses seat in first round of French election

Clement Beaune urged people to vote for anyone but the National Rally (RN) in the second round - CHRISTOPHE PETIT TESSON/Shutterstock

Clément Beaune, Emmanuel Macron’s anti-Brexit pitbull, lost his Paris seat in the first round of France’s snap election.

Mr Beaune, who was Europe minister during the Brexit negotiations, was notorious for his social media attacks on Britain’s decision to leave the EU, which he said was an “intellectual fraud” based on “many lies”.

After his humiliating defeat, Mr Beaune urged people to vote for anyone but the National Rally (RN) in the second round after Marine Le Pen’s Eurosceptic party secured the most votes in the first.

“When there is a RN candidate, you have to vote for the person opposite the RN candidate,” he told French radio.

He added it would be “irresponsible” if other parties did not form a coalition to stop RN from getting a majority in Parliament.

Support for Marine Le Pen and the RN has been strong in the first round of the elections - Thibault Camus/AP

In October 2021, he wrote “stop telling us you do not need us anymore, stop being obsessed with us, stop believing we will solve your problems. They made a mess of Brexit. It’s their choice and their failure, not ours,” on social media during a row with the UK over fishing licences.

Mr Macron reportedly refused a personal request from then prime minister Boris Johnson to rein in Mr Beaune during the 2017 to 2020  Brexit negotiations. The president later accused Ms Le Pen of plotting “Frexit by stealth” during his victorious 2022 campaign for a second Élysée term.

Mr Macron called a snap legislative elections, consisting of two rounds, after being trounced by RN in the European elections last month. After the first round on Sunday, it appeared his gamble daring the French to back the hard-Right had backfired. RN and its allies took 33.2 per cent of the vote, ahead of the New Popular Front alliance of Left-wing parties with 28 per cent.

Mr Macron’s centrist camp took just 20 per cent of the vote. RN could win an absolute majority in the second round, name a new prime minister and leave the president a lame duck.

Mr Beaune took 32.78 per cent of the vote, losing to New Popular Front candidate Emmanuel Grégoire, who was elected with 50.87 per cent. Mr Grégoire is a member of the centre-Left Socialist Party and the first deputy mayor of Paris. He is one of more than 60 candidates, including Ms Le Pen, who got more than 50 per cent of the vote in their constituencies and were elected automatically without needing to go to the run-off vote on July 7.

In the last National Assembly elections in 2022, Mr Beaune won the 7th constituency of Paris in the second round with 50.73 per cent of the vote. He beat Caroline Mécary, a Green politician, with 49.27 per cent.

Célia Belin, of the European Council on Foreign Relations think tank, said Mr Macron’s gamble had “backfired” and left him “weakened and isolated”.

“His centrist coalition lost six to eight percentage points compared to 2022, potentially retaining only a third of its previous seats his camp enjoyed only three weeks ago,” she said.

She added, “Macron’s decision to call snap elections amounted to self-sabotage, accelerating the rise of the far-Right in French politics by months or even years.”

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