Rival parties on both sides of the political centre are being urged to join French President Emmanuel Macron in forging a democratic alliance against Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally in upcoming snap legislative elections.
In what amounted to a campaign speech on Wednesday just days after his shock call for an election, Macron acknowledged making mistakes, saying the French had expressed indignation but felt they were not being heard.
The election would provide clarity, Macron said.
He called on “many of our compatriots and political leaders who do not recognise themselves in the extremist fever” to “build a new project … a coalition to govern, a coalition to act in the service of the French and for the republic”.
He pledged to take a firmer hand in questions of immigration, security and justice, arguing a far-left prone to anti-Semitism would be too “lax” while the extreme right would bulldoze France’s constitutional rule of law.
In a dig at the leader of the conservative Republicans party, Macron decried the political horsetrading of the past few days, saying “the mask has come off” some parties seeking to forge “unnatural alliances”.
Republicans party chief Eric Ciotti’s appeal for an alliance between his party’s candidates and the National Rally in a snap parliamentary election has poleaxed the conservative party.