Macron gambles rest of his presidency by calling French legislative elections
France’s finance minister said on Monday that the snap election called by President Emmanuel Macron after a bruising loss to the far right in European Parliament elections would be the most consequential legislative vote in the republic’s history.
Macron’s shock decision amounts to a roll of the dice on his political future. It could hand a great deal of power to Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally (RN) after years on the sidelines, and neuter his presidency three years before it is due to end.
The legislative vote will take place on June 30, less than a month before the start of the Paris Olympics, with a second round on July 7.
“This will be the most consequential parliamentary election for France and for the French in the history of the Fifth Republic,” Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire told RTL radio.
French President Emmanuel Macron has called a snap election after a surge in support for far-right parties in France and other European Union member states during European Parliament elections. Political rival Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally party won twice as many votes as Macron’s centrist Renaissance party.
Helmed by 28-year-old Jordan Bardella, the RN won about 32 per cent of the vote on Sunday, more than double the Macron ticket’s 15 per cent, according to exit polls. The Socialists came within a whisker of Macron at 14 per cent.
“In the next few days, I’ll be saying what I think is the right direction for the nation. I’ve heard your message, your concerns, and I won’t leave them unanswered,” said Macron.
Element of surprise
Analysts said Macron’s decision aimed to make the best of his weak position, reclaiming the initiative and forcing RN into election mode faster than it would have liked.
Some RN leaders appeared to have been caught off guard.
“We didn’t think it would be immediately after the European elections, even if we wanted it to be,” RN deputy chairman Sebastien Chenu said on RTL Radio.
Bardella will be the party’s candidate for prime minister, Chenu said.
The result is hard to predict. The outcome is likely to depend on how committed leftist and centre-right voters are to the idea of blocking the far right from power. Voter turnout on Sunday was about 52 per cent, the interior ministry said.
If the RN wins a majority, Macron would still remain as president and direct defence and foreign policy. But he would lose the power to set the domestic agenda, from economic policy to security.
Macron’s Renaissance party currently has 169 lower house lawmakers out of a total of 577. The RN has 88.
Eurasia Group said the RN was no shoo-in for a majority, predicting a hung parliament as the most likely scenario.
“Faced with another hung parliament, [Macron] will try to form a wider alliance with the centre-right or centre-left, possibly by appointing a prime minister from one of those camps,” it said in a note.
“We foresee a losing struggle for serious domestic reform or strict deficit reduction in the remaining three years of Macron’s term.”
The euro fell 0.5 per cent in early European trade, while Paris blue-chip stocks dropped two per cent, led by steep losses in banks BNP Paribas and Societe Generale.
Published at Sun, 09 Jun 2024 19:50:23 +0000
Top Israeli official Benny Gantz resigns from government over Netanyahu’s Gaza war strategy
Benny Gantz, a centrist member of Israel’s three-man war cabinet, announced his resignation on Sunday, accusing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of mismanaging the war effort in Gaza and putting his own “political survival” over the country’s security needs.
The move does not immediately pose a threat to Netanyahu, who still controls a majority coalition in Israel’s parliament, the Knesset. But the Israeli leader becomes more heavily reliant on his far-right allies.
Netanyahu is “preventing true victory” and “making empty promises,” Gantz said, adding that the country needs to take a different direction as he expects the fighting to continue for years to come.
The popular former military chief joined Netanyahu’s government shortly after the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack on Israel in a show of unity.
His presence also boosted Israel’s credibility with its international partners. Gantz has good working relations with U.S. officials.
Gantz had previously said he would leave the government by June 8 if Netanyahu did not formulate a new plan for postwar Gaza.
He scrapped a planned news conference Saturday night after four Israeli hostages were dramatically rescued from Gaza earlier in the day in Israel’s largest such operation since the eight-month war began.
At least 274 Palestinians, including children, were killed in the assault, Gaza health officials said.
Gantz called for Israel to hold elections in the fall and encouraged the third member of the war cabinet, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, to “do the right thing” and resign from the government as well.
The international community is growing more critical of Israel’s military operation in Gaza after accusations of genocide, talk of arrest warrants and airstrikes that killed civilians in Rafah. Andrew Chang breaks down the global shift in stance, and how Israel is responding to the pressure.
Gallant has previously said he would resign if Israel chose to reoccupy Gaza, and he encouraged the government to make plans for a Palestinian administration.
On Saturday, Netanyahu had urged Gantz not to leave the emergency wartime government.
“This is the time for unity, not for division,” he said, in a direct plea to Gantz.
Gantz’s decision to leave is largely “a symbolic move” due to his frustration with Netanyahu, said Gideon Rahat, chair of the political science department at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
He noted it could further increase Netanyahu’s reliance on extremist, right-wing members of his government led by National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.
“I think the outside world, especially the United States, is not very happy about it, because they see Gantz and his party as the more responsible people within this government,” Rahat said.
Hamas took some 250 hostages during the Oct. 7 attack that killed about 1,200 people, according to Israel tallies. About half were released during a weeklong ceasefire in November. About 120 hostages remain, with 43 pronounced dead.
At least 36,700 Palestinians have been killed in the fighting, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between fighters and civilians.
Published at Fri, 26 Jan 2024 09:01:20 +0000
