Is Emmanuel Macron Being Rash or Bold in Calling Election?
Desperate or cunning? Emmanuel Macron is literally betting the house after getting crushed by Marine Le Pen’s nationalist far right in European parliamentary elections.
No stranger to political gambles, the French president caught everyone off guard by calling a snap legislative vote that coincides with him playing host to the Summer Olympics. He’s only got three years left as president, and he’s failed to make the country Le Pen-proof.
Is the plan to give voters a taste of what Le Pen will be like — if she wins big again she could well impose her protege Jordan Bardella as prime minister — with a view that they will come to their senses and vote differently at the presidential election come 2027?
Either way it speaks to Macron’s instincts not to take things lying down. Belgium’s Alexander De Croo responded to defeat by resigning. In Germany, Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats and his progressive coalition partners were trounced, leaving the battered chancellor to pick up the pieces.
Given the headlines were dominated by the surge of the far right, it may come as a surprise that overall the pro-European center just about held. That means Ursula von der Leyen remains on track to stay for another five-year term as president of the European Commission though likely needing to make a lot more concessions, on green policies and immigration.
The biggest winner of the night? Italy’s Giorgia Meloni, who has now effortlessly established herself at the head of the table, equally at ease negotiating with Hungarian troublemaker Viktor Orban or horse-trading for influential positions in the European Union’s executive arm.
She will preside over the Group of Seven this week in Apulia, just about the only leader who isn’t a lame duck. In record time she’s managed the transition from far right to mainstream that has eluded Le Pen for years.— Flavia Krause-Jackson