French President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday urged rival parties on both sides of the political centre to join him in forging a democratic alliance against Marine Le Pen's far-right National Rally (RN) in a snap parliamentary election.
In what amounted to a campaign speech days after he upended French politics by calling the election, Macron acknowledged making mistakes, saying people had expressed their indignation but felt they were not being heard.
Macron called the election for June 30, with a second round on July 7, in a surprise move after the eurosceptic nationalist RN trounced his Renaissance party in European Parliament elections on Sunday.
His move sent shockwaves across the political landscape as parties sought to build alliances and launch campaigns.
"I do not want to give the keys to power to the extreme right in 2027, so I fully accept having triggered a movement to provide clarification," he said. RN policies would impoverish workers and retirees, he said.
If RN were to win a parliamentary majority, Macron would remain president for three more years and direct defence and foreign policy but would lose control over the domestic agenda, including economic policy, security, immigration and finances.
Macron said he would not quit if his ruling alliance loses.
He called on "many of our compatriots and political leaders who do not recognize 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 that a far-left prone to anti-Semitism would be too "lax". The extreme right would not solve problems and would only bulldoze France's constitutional rule of law, he said.
Macron also decried the political horsetrading of the past days, saying "the mask has come off" some parties seeking to forge "unnatural alliances."
Republicans party chief Eric Ciotti, who has appealed for an electoral alliance between his party's candidates and the RN, had made "a deal with the devil," Macron said.
CIOTTI FACING AXE
The anti-immigration, eurosceptic RN is projected to emerge as the strongest force after the election but may fall short of an absolute majority, a poll this week showed.
Ciotti's pact, which would ditch a decades-long consensus among France's mainstream political parties to block the far-right from power, has torpedoed the Republicans (LR).
Senior LR lieutenants called for him to be fired and convened an emergency meeting. Ciotti said he would not participate and had the party headquarters locked.
"He no longer has his place at the helm of the party," Republicans Senator Agnes Evren told reporters as she arrived for the crisis meeting. "We need to put him in a place where he can no longer harm his party."
LR lawmaker Aurelien Pradie said despairingly: "This has turned into a madhouse."
Inside his own camp, Macron's election call has been met with gloom among the Renaissance rank-and-file, with little appetite for a bruising campaign.
Edouard Philippe, Macron's former prime minister and a potential successor in the 2027 presidential election, appeared to hint at the dismay among the centrist coalition and questions over how prominent a role Macron should play in the campaign.
"I'm not sure it's entirely healthy for the president of the republic to run a legislative campaign," he said on BFM TV.
While centre, liberal and Socialist parties were set to retain a majority in the European Parliament, the far-right made significant gains, adding uncertainty to Europe's future political direction.
