France heading for ‘Frexit in disguise’, warns Macron minister

Jordan Bardella has denounced the move against Marine Le Pen's party as an "alliance of dishonour" - AP Photo/Thomas Padilla

France is heading for a “Frexit in disguise” if the hard-Right or hard-Left prevail in the parliamentary elections, Emmanuel Macron’s finance minister has warned.

‌Mr Macron’s centrist party and a Left-wing alliance are scrambling to block the hard-Right National Rally (RN) from taking power ahead of a deadline to register for Sunday’s second-round runoff.

However Bruno Le Maire, the finance minister who harks from the centre-Right, has ruled out voting for either Marine Le Pen’s party or the far-Left France Unbowed (LFI), saying both are beyond the pale and will wreak havoc on the economy and the values of the French Republic.

‌“Let’s be clear: the extremes will end European integration, by renegotiating our European contribution on the one hand, by flouting the budgetary rules of the eurozone on the other,” he said.

‌“These are two Frexits in disguise.”

Bruno Le Maire, the finance minister who harks from the centre-Right, has ruled out voting for either hard-Right or hard-Left - AP Photo/Thibault Camus

‌Jordan Bardella, RN’s president, says he wants to reduce the country’s contribution to the European Union budget by “two to three billion euros”, while the New Popular Front programme, a Left-wing alliance of Socialists, Greens, Communists and LFI, advocates “rejecting” European budget rules.

‌Splits have emerged in the Macron camp over whether to withdraw candidates to back a Left-wing, Mélenchoniste alternative, with some like Mr Le Maire adopting a “neither the RN nor LFI” stance and others, such as outgoing parliamentary speaker Yaël Braun-Pivet, defending a “case-by-case” approach.

‌Candidates who gained more than 12.5 per cent of the registered vote in last Sunday’s first round have until 6pm French time on Tuesday to say whether they are running in the final ballot this Sunday, July 7.

‌More than 200 candidates who came third in the first round have already announced they’re pulling out, mainly to block the RN out of “three-ways”, according to Le Monde.

The alliance hopes that tactical voting will prevent Ms Le Pen’s party from winning the 289 seats needed for an absolute majority.

‌Mr Macron has called for a “broad” democratic coalition against the anti-immigrant RN, with the political crisis overshadowing France’s preparations for the Olympic Games this summer.

Yet Mr Bardella, who would become prime minister if the RN won an absolute majority, has denounced the move against his party as an “alliance of dishonour” and accused the French president of coming “to the rescue of a violent far-Left movement”.

Speaking to broadcaster TF1 on Monday evening, Gabriel Attal, the French prime minister, once again urged voters not to give Ms Le Pen an absolute majority.

‌“That would be catastrophic for the French,” he said, adding that it would fuel divisions in society.

The RN garnered 33 per cent of the vote last Sunday, compared with 28 per cent for the New Popular Front alliance and just over 20 per cent for Macron’s party.

‌Analysts say the most likely outcome of the snap election is a hung parliament that could lead to months of political paralysis and chaos.

‌With a total of 76 candidates elected in the first round, the final composition of the 577-seat National Assembly will be clear only after the second round.

On Tuesday, Ms Le Pen said her party’s “government is ready” if it clinches an absolute majority or close enough to form one with any willing allies.

‌She accused Mr Macron of plotting an “administrative coup d’état” by planning to make a wave of strategic appointments, notably in the police, this week before a possible “cohabitation” with her National Rally.

In the last council of ministers before the first round of legislative elections, Mr Macron already announced an unusually large raft of appointments of senior civil servants, including the military governor of Paris, the new chief of staff of the French Air Force, the new director of the European Union at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and three ambassadors.

In Brussels last Thursday, Mr Macron announced his wish to see Thierry Breton reappointed as French EU Commissioner.

Ms Le Pen claimed the “aim” of such appointments was “to prevent Jordan Bardella from governing the country as he wishes” and that if her party won power, it would reverse these appointments “so as to be able to govern”.

‌The Macron camp still hopes to cobble together a coalition after the electoral dust settles, ranging from the Left to the centre-Right. However the LFI has already ruled out doing any such deal.

‌With the RN ahead in more than half of France’s constituencies, on Tuesday, it emerged that one of its candidates in Jura had qualified for the second round even though he has been placed under guardianship because he is suffering from dementia.

‌Tierry Mosca, 65, was placed under curatorship in November 2023. A case against him for “undeclared work” was dismissed at the beginning of June on the grounds of his “impaired mental state”, local media reported.

‌That did not stop him from finishing second in the first round last Sunday behind Marie-Christine Dalloz, the outgoing MP, and ahead of Evelyne Ternant, the Communist candidate, who announced her withdrawal from the second round in order to block the RN.

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