This year, for the French, was marked by the presidential re-election of Emmanuel Macron, albeit with the power of the extreme right growing in the country. In addition, Macron is weakened on the domestic political scene by not having an absolute majority in the National Assembly and by facing important opposition forces.
This year that is ending started very well for Emmanuel Macron, since he achieved his re-election as head of state. A historical fact if one takes into account that he is the first president of the Fifth Republic re-elected for a second term without a period of cohabitation, that is to say that he was re-elected while he did not share power with the opposition.
On Sunday, April 24, Emmanuel Macron was appointed for a second five-year term, obtaining 58.54% of the vote against Marine Le Pen, of the far-right National Rally, who obtained 41.46%. But despite Macron’s victory, Le Pen achieved the best result his match has ever had, moving ever closer to a possible victory. Well, in 2012, the right-wing leader got just under 18% and around 33% in the second round of 2017.
The 2022 presidential vote was also marked by historically low results for the traditional French parties, something that had already happened in 2017, but was even worse this time. The Socialist Party and the right-wing party Los Republicanos respectively obtained 1.75% and 4.78% of the votes, further plunging these political parties into the crisis they are going through.
Finally, the strong abstention was notable this year. Between 2007 and 2022, abstention in the second round of the presidential elections continued to increase, rising from 16% to 28%, a level not seen since 1969.
Historic result of the extreme right
In the second round of the presidential elections, Marine Le Pen obtained nearly 2.7 million votes to reach 41.46%. The National Rally party achieved a record result as it increased by 7.56 points compared to the 2017 presidential elections, in which Marine Le Pen and Emmanuel Macron had also met in the second round.
This party focuses its discourse on a strong limitation of immigration, greater security in the country and an openly neoliberal economic policy.
Agrupación Nacional not only stood out for its results in the presidential elections, but also in the legislative elections that followed in June. There, the party also registered a historic advance, multiplying by ten its number of elected representatives, with 89 deputies. This victory, although relative, was very important for the movement, which is not used to having a role in parliament.
The year 2022 also saw the emergence on the political scene of the far-right Reconquista party of Éric Zemmour, a controversial journalist who managed to gather 7% of the vote in the first round of the presidential election.
He shares a political program close to that of Marine Le Pen, but with a more extreme vision of security and immigration. In addition, he intends to defend the traditional values of the family and of the Catholic Church. He also has an openly homophobic and racist speech. In fact, and he has already been sentenced three times by a court, the last one for provoking racial hatred and racist insults.
A consolidation of the extreme right
The fact that far-right parties are gaining ground in Europe and in France is not new. “The rise of the extreme right is a constant, especially in France in recent years, it is not a recent phenomenon,” explains Arsenio Cuenca, a doctoral student at EPHE/CNRS (Paris).
These political victories can be partly explained by the weakening of the other traditional right-wing parties. “The old Republican front that used to act as a barrier to the extreme right is getting weaker,” explains the expert. For this reason, a part of the followers of Los Republicanos has been redirected towards the Agrupación Nacional.
The discourse of the extreme right, previously demonized, has also been normalized in the public and media space. “The discourse of the extreme right is increasingly present in the political ‘mainstream’, which leads to trivializing it and accepting its proposals more easily”, analyzes Arsenio Cuenca.
The rise of a new left with NUPES?
With 21.95% of the vote in the first round of the presidential elections, Jean Luc Mélenchon and his France Insoumisa party came close to victory, with only a few tenths of a difference with Marine Le Pen. A defeat with accents of victory that gave him first place on the left.
The day after the presidential elections, Jean-Luc Mélenchon worked to unite the left and face Emmanuel Macron in the legislative elections. In order to secure the largest number of votes and obtain more seats in the National Assembly, the Communist Party, the Socialist Party and EELV signed an agreement with France Insoumise, and called their movement Nupes, for the New Popular, Ecological and Social Union. .
The coalition won 131 of the 577 seats in the National Assembly and although they failed to make Jean-Luc Mélenchon prime minister, they were the first political force in opposition to the government of Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne.
Emmanuel Macron weakened since his victory
Emmanuel Macron’s party, Ensemble!, did not achieve an absolute majority in the National Assembly and was left with 245 deputies. Therefore, the Executive saw itself weakened and also remained dependent on the votes of deputies from other parties to approve its laws, which made it difficult for it to govern.
In parliament, obstruction is used both in the presidential field and in the opposition field to block bills, which led Élisabeth Borne to use several times the controversial article 49.3 of the Constitution, known as ” commitment of responsibility”, which allows the Government to approve the text it presents without a vote.
The opposition accused the government of authoritarianism and responded by presenting motions of censure against it, all of which have been rejected so far.
Finally, his controversial pension reform project has once again been postponed and will be presented on January 10. The proposal foresees increasing the legal retirement age from the 62 years that are currently needed to 65.
Although Macron just started his second term, he lost a part of his power, partly because he will not be able to run for re-election in the next presidential elections. Politicians who would normally support him hoping to get a place in his future administration are no longer interested in doing so.
The French now worry about their purchasing power, inflation, the environment and the energy issue because of the war in Ukraine; Issues that the Macron government will have to solve quickly so as not to lose popularity, which is now between 35% and 40% of favorable opinions.
With local media
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