The far-right leader seeks to form a parliamentary group that will allow her to become the first opposition party to Macron
National Regroupment, the party of the far-right Marine Le Pen, officially launched its national campaign for the French legislative elections, which will take place on June 12 and 19, on Thursday. In these elections, citizens must elect their 577 deputies to the National Assembly. Its objective is to ensure that the largest number of deputies of National Regrouping are elected and form a parliamentary group. They want to become the opposition party to the president, Emmanuel Macron.
“We want to be present in all constituencies” with “National Regrouping candidates or supported by National Regrouping,” announced Jordan Bardella, MEP and interim president of this far-right party, at a press conference in Fréjus, in the south of France. .
Marine Le Pen, who obtained 41.4% of the vote in the presidential elections, will be a candidate for re-election as a deputy of the National Assembly in the constituency of Pas-de-Calais (northern France), confirmed Bardella.
National Regrouping rules out an agreement with Reconquista, the party of ultra Éric Zemmour, before the first round. Zemmour has called for “the unity of the right and patriots” in the face of the legislative elections. Bardella does not, however, close the door to possible alliances in the second round to support the “best positioned patriotic candidate.”
One of the problems that Regrouping National usually has in legislative elections is that, if its candidate manages to go to the second round in a locality, the other parties support the best positioned candidate to prevent the extreme right from obtaining a deputy in that constituency.
Sanitary cord
So far the cordon sanitaire has worked well. Five years ago, they obtained only eight deputies, including Le Pen, and failed to form a parliamentary group, despite the fact that the far-right candidate had obtained 33.9% of the vote in the 2017 presidential elections. They currently have six deputies out of 577 that is in the National Assembly. In order to form a parliamentary group, a minimum of fifteen deputies are needed.
On the other hand, the leftist parties continue to negotiate to try to reach an agreement among themselves ahead of the legislative elections. Jean-Luc Mélenchon, leader of La Francia Insumisa (the Gallic Podemos), urges the formation of “a federation” of left-wing parties. His group reached an agreement this Thursday for the legislative elections with Generations, a small party founded by former socialite Benoît Hamon.
The Socialists are, however, divided over a potential alliance with La Francia Insumisa. The previous president, François Hollande, who opposes this, warned yesterday of the danger that the Socialist Party “disappears” in the event of an electoral agreement with the far-left party.
According to a survey by Odoxa for the newspaper ‘Le Figaro’, 86% of supporters of the leftist side want an alliance ahead of the legislative elections.
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