Emmanuel Macron faces heavy losses after a short campaign
The next French government may be led by the hard right or hard left
![Jordan Bardella, President of the French far-right National Rally.](https://www.economist.com/cdn-cgi/image/width=1424,quality=80,format=auto/content-assets/images/20240622_EUP006.jpg)
As France’s flash parliamentary-election campaign officially got under way this week, Emmanuel Macron’s centrist candidates were pounding the streets, trying to put on a brave face. After days handing out flyers, one deputy standing for re-election concedes that campaigning is “extremely tough”. Another describes the president’s decision to call a snap legislative election as “idiotic”. Many are preparing to pack their bags. “He has thrown us under a bus,” says a minister.
The two-round vote for the National Assembly, on June 30th and July 7th, has turned into one of the most crucial in post-war French history. At stake is the serious possibility of a government led by either the hard right or hard left. Marine Le Pen’s National Rally (RN) is the better known. But the reconstituted left-wing alliance, the New Popular Front (NFP), is now hot on its heels, with an equally drastic tax-and-spend programme.
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This article appeared in the Europe section of the print edition under the headline “Out ahead”
Europe June 22nd 2024
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