Macron breaks his silence and rejects a far-left prime minister

Breaking his silence three days after Sunday’s second round of snap elections in France, French President Emmanuel Macron announced that he would set up a governing alliance centering around “republican forces (les forces républicaines).” Given that he has said that not only extreme rightists but also far-left groups go against the values of the French Republic, his announcement can be interpreted as rejecting a subsequent prime minister from the left-wing alliance Nouveau Front Populaire (NFP), which dominated the elections. In a public letter covered in Le Parisien, Macron commented that no one won the elections, saying there is no political force with a sufficient majority in parliament.

Macron’s recent remarks come in the wake of the 'republican front'-a coalition of centrists and left-wingers-successfully blocking the far-right Rassemblement National (RN) in the second round of voting. His message seems to be a clear statement that neither the RN nor the NFP will be allowed to take power, regardless of the election results. This stance is consistent with his previous announcement of a snap election plan, in which he made it clear that the far-left principles of antisemitism and factionalism are not in line with the values of the republic. He sees these principles as posing as severe a threat as far-right groups.

Macron’s open letter was immediately met with criticism from both the far-left and far-right. Jean-Luc Mélenchon wrote on X that President Macron does not accept the NFP’s victory in the elections, adding that the ruling party should admit defeat to the left-wing coalition. Likewise, former RN leader Marine Le Pen left a post saying, “If I’ve got this straight, the president proposes to block the far-left that helped the ruling party to be elected three days ago,” deriding the situation as an undignified circus.


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