Europe | The French parliamentary election

The economic recklessness of both France’s hard left and hard right

They favour soaking the rich, big spending and business-bashing

Jean-Luc Mélenchon
Photograph: Getty Images
|Paris

WITHIN TWO weeks France could have a hard-left or hard-right government. That prospect has led to alarm in financial markets and to claim and counter-claim about each bloc’s economic policies and the damage that might result. The French will vote in two rounds on June 30th and July 7th, after President Emmanuel Macron unexpectedly called a parliamentary election, shocking even his closest allies and business. On Friday 21st he said he was “confident in French people, their intelligence, their strength”. But several new opinion polls published over the subsequent weekend show the hard right continues to be in the lead, with a left-wing coalition running second.

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