Marine Le Pen sets a new condition for holding a debate with Emmanuel Macron before the European elections. It is hard to imagine the head of state complying with it.
Marine Le Pen does she want a debate with Emmanuel Macron before the European elections? If the former president of the National Rally officially refuses to step aside, the new conditions she sets for the confrontation make it more than improbable. For several weeks, the entourage of the Head of State has said it is considering a Macron-Le Pen face-to-face meeting to relaunch the Macronist list campaign. But even before receiving her invitation, the former presidential candidate engages in clever blackmail.
“Yes, but…” Here is the RN’s strategy. First, Marine Le Pen judged a confrontation “very useful”, before postponing it until September. A few days later, Jordan Bardella validated the idea of a debate before June 9, but on condition of debating “a little more widely than on European questions”. Thursday evening, the RN deputy set a final condition, which should completely discourage the President of the Republic.
“Draw the consequences”…
“If he puts his resignation or the dissolution of the National Assembly on the table, I will debate with pleasure,” launched Marine Le Pen on the set of France 2. The former boss of the RN justified her asks: “When we are President of the Republic and we are supposed to be above the parties, we either enter into the partisan debate or we do not enter into it. If we enter into it, then at that moment , we must draw the consequences if we lose the elections.”
Marine Le Pen knows what she is doing: her party is given the arch-favorite for this European election, far ahead of Valérie Hayer’s Macronist list. It is therefore highly unlikely that Emmanuel Macron will comply with his blackmail, at the risk of having to resign or dissolve the Assembly on the evening of June 9. The MP seems to have found the perfect strategy to avoid a duel that could cost her dearly, while leaving it to her opponent to forfeit.
And also in the countryside
11:04 – Marie Toussaint’s EELV list falls to 5% in a survey
The 5% threshold is fateful in European elections: below that, a list obtains no seat in the European Parliament. This is what could happen to the list of environmentalists led by Marie Toussaint: the latest YouGov poll for the HuffPost credits EELV with 5% voting intentions in the June 9 election. Environmentalists can, however, count on the support of young people: according to the same survey, 22% of 18-24 year olds surveyed plan to vote for Marie Toussaint. Problem: this age group is also the most abstentionist.
10:45 – “Horrified”, “despicable”: European candidates react to the attempted fire of a synagogue
“The vile anti-Semitic poison affected the Jewish community of Rouen this morning,” writes Valérie Hayer, head of the Renaissance list, on “, reacts Jordan Bardella. The head of the list of La France insoumise, Manon Aubry, also says she is “horrified by the attempted fire of the Rouen synagogue” and adds that “we will never tolerate these despicable anti-Semitic acts.”
10:34 – New Caledonia: “The government is creating a situation of civil war”, according to Arthaud
The head of the Lutte Ouvrière list in the European elections discusses on Franceinfo the violence shaking New Caledonia, linked to the thaw of the electorate. For Nathalie Arthaud, the disappearance of Kanaks from the electoral body “is exactly the government’s goal”. According to her, the French government “doesn’t care as much about the fate of the Kanaks as it does about the fate of the Caldoches (descendants of European populations, editor’s note) because it is creating a situation of civil war.”
10:03 – Glucksmann, Bellamy, Toussaint and Deffontaines in meeting this Friday
The head of the communist list Léon Deffontaines is expected in Marseille today for a public meeting. At the same time, the ecologist Marie Toussaint goes to Carquefou (Loire-Atlantique), while the head of the LR list François-Xavier Bellamy is expected in Saint-Malo. For his part, Raphaël Glucksmann will be in Girondes then in Landes, and will give a meeting in Morcenx in the company of the boss of the PS, Olivier Faure.