Courting and reassuring: the representatives of the main parties in the race for the legislative elections present their program to employers’ organizations on Thursday June 20, at a time when the left and the far right are accused of making too expensive promises.
These hearings will take place in a context where French public finances are in the red and were singled out on Wednesday by the European Commission which opened the way to procedures for excessive public deficits.
Information to remember
⇒ Gabriel Attal calls for dikes in the face of anti-Semitism
⇒ Party representatives in front of employers
⇒ RN: No questioning of “France’s international commitments”
Attal calls on the French to “choose” him as Prime Minister
Gabriel Attal on Wednesday called on the French to “choose” him as Prime Minister in the first round of the legislative elections, when he was questioned about the necessity or not of campaigning with Emmanuel Macron given the animosity that the president arouses among voters.
“This is the first time in more than 25 years that the French will choose a Prime Minister. Obviously there will be a before and an after. And at the end of this election, necessarily, there will be a before and after in the practice of power, in the balance of institutions. On January 9, the President of the Republic appointed me. On June 30, I would like the French to choose me. responded during a press conference presenting the majority’s program for this election.
He also asked political leaders on Wednesday to “put up barriers” in the face of the rise in anti-Semitism and to “refuse to trivialize (it)”, targeting Jean-Luc Mélenchon, leader of France Insoumise. “Political leaders and political parties have a responsibility to put up barriers, to prevent a certain number of speeches from becoming commonplace,” said the Prime Minister who is leading the presidential camp’s campaign in the legislative elections, when questioned about the alleged rape of ‘a young Jewish girl in Courbevoie (Hauts-de-Seine). “When we say, as was the case for Jean-Luc Mélenchon, that anti-Semitism is, I quote, residual in our country while it (…) has exploded, (…) obviously that we allow a speech, a hatred to become commonplace in public debate.”
Grand oral in front of the bosses
Representatives of the main parties in the legislative race present their program to employers’ organizations on Thursday. Edouard Philippe for Horizons, Eric Coquerel and Boris Vallaud for the New Popular Front, Jordan Bardella and Éric Ciotti for the National Rally and its partners, Bruno Le Maire for Ensemble pour la République, and Bruno Retailleau for Les Républicains must follow one another on the stage from the Gaveau room between 8:45 a.m. and 12:45 p.m.
Each party or coalition will have 15 minutes to detail its program before answering questions for 30 minutes from the employers’ organizations and business leaders present, the French Business Movement (Medef) detailed to AFP. Even before this oral hearing, the first French employers’ organization described on Wednesday as “dangerous” for the French economy the measures proposed by the National Rally and the New Popular Front in view of the legislative elections of June 30 and July 7.
The RN “will not call into question France’s international commitments”
11 days before the legislative elections, the president of the RN Jordan Bardella wanted to reassure on Wednesday about his foreign policy, excluding “calling into question the commitments” of France internationally in terms of defense. He also confirmed that he would only go to Matignon with an absolute majority in the National Assembly. “There is a credibility issue with regard to our European partners and our NATO allies,” said the leader of the RN visiting the Eurosatory defense exhibition near Paris.
There is therefore no longer any question of “leaving the integrated command” of the Atlantic Alliance, as Marine Le Pen proposed two years ago. At least not while the war in Ukraine “is still ongoing”, as Jordan Bardella had already explained in an attempt to erase the pro-Kremlin image that his party drags around like a ball and chain. The young president of the RN has also confirmed his intention to maintain military support for kyiv, with however a “red line” on “long-range missiles” and other weapons which would make it possible to “strike Russian territory”, to “avoid any risk of escalation”.
Televised debate between Attal, Bompard and Bardella
A debate will take place between Gabriel Attal, Jordan Bardella and Manuel Bompard on the evening of June 25 on TF1, five days before the first round of the legislative elections, the leading French channel announced on Wednesday.
This debate between the Prime Minister from Renaissance, the president of the National Rally and the former deputy of La France insoumise will be moderated by Gilles Bouleau and Anne-Claire Coudray.
Macronist duel in sight in the 2nd district of Paris
Historical Macronist, the Paris deputy Gilles Le Gendre did not obtain the nomination of Renaissance for the legislative elections, and will have to face a duo composed of a close friend of Rachida Dati, and an advisor to Gabriel Attal. A duel between the macronie of “surpassing”, and that of marriage with the right. The former president of the Renaissance group (from 2018 to 2020) denounces an “extravagant”, “unworthy” decision, which he learned of in the middle of a public meeting, Friday evening, when he saw the list of his party’s nominations appear on the Internet.
Once coveted by the Minister of Foreign Affairs Stéphane Séjourné, the 2nd district of Paris, straddling the posh 5th, 6th and 7th arrondissements, finally goes to an assistant of the Minister of Culture Rachida Dati, mayor of the 7th: Jean Laussucq , aged 34, with Antoine Lesieur, 29, advisor to the Prime Minister as substitute.
Ciotti denounces a “hidden alliance” between macronie and LR
Eric Ciotti, at the origin of a “coalition” between the right and the RN in the legislative elections, denounces a “secret alliance” between the LR who are trying to exclude him from their presidency and the macronie, in an interview posted online Wednesday on the website Figaro.
“I publicly denounce the great dissolution of the right in the macronism at work”, affirms the deputy for Alpes-Maritimes who presents around sixty candidates for the legislative elections under the label “Les Républicains à la gauche” and whose rapprochement with the RN was challenged by the LR leadership.
“The figures have just fallen: there will be nearly 70 constituencies without candidates from the Macronist majority, half of which for the outgoing LR deputies who did not follow me,” he explains, interpreting this absence of a rival as proof that a “hidden alliance (that) was constructed.” Eric Ciotti, who is representing himself in his constituency, assures that he “has not betrayed anyone” with his alliance with the RN, presenting his approach as “so much more Gaullian than the status quo and the comfort of electoral income reduced to nothing” of the LR which did not choose to follow him.
90 media outlets call for a “common front” against the far right
Ahead of the legislative elections, 90 media outlets, some of which are classified on the left like L’Humanité, published an article on Wednesday calling for a “common front” against the far right which threatens, according to them, “the freedom of the press”. “The fight against the extreme right and its project is at the heart of our editorial commitments”, we can read in this document signed among others by Alternatives Economiques, Arrêt sur images, Les Jours, Mediapart, Politis, the society of journalists ( SDJ) from the national editorial staff of France 3 or that of the online media Konbini. For these media, “press freedom is in the sights” of the National Rally (RN).