Sunday June 9, 9:02 p.m. Barely an hour after the first official results of the European vote, cataclysmic for the majority, Emmanuel Macron acts as the dissolution of the National Assembly. “A political earthquake shakes France”, summarizes the German daily Die Welt (conservative). The British daily The Guardian (left) evokes a “spectacular decision”. La Libre Belgique, in a verb similar to that of Eunews Italyalert: “thunder in Paris”.
But for our neighbors on the Old Continent, this decision is above all the translation of the scathing failure of the President of the Republic “who invested himself in the campaign until his television interview on Thursday during the commemorations of the Allied Landing of 1944 “, notes the Swiss daily The morning. In Spain, El País (center left) confirms: “the humiliating defeat of Emmanuel Macron’s supporters has triggered a political crisis with unpredictable consequences.”
An unprecedented situation in France and Europe
And for good reason, the situation is unprecedented. The Fifth Republic has never experienced a dissolution of the lower house in immediate reaction to the result of an election. “As the hard right advances in the European elections, Macron takes risks,” says the British weekly news magazine The Economist (liberal). For its part, the transalpine daily La Repubblica (LEFT) recalls that “France is entering an institutional phase full of unknowns where everything seems possible”.
The British title The Guardian for his part, projects the opportunities for “this enormous bet”. “Mr. Macron’s party could suffer further losses, which would compromise the remainder of his presidential mandate and could give even more power to Marine Le Pen,” explains the British newspaper. But then, wouldn’t that be Emmanuel Macron’s entire strategy? “If the RN achieved a good score and, for example, Bardella was offered the post of Prime Minister, two and a half years in government could be enough to make the far right unpopular,” professes The Guardian.
For others, this Trafalgar move is just a “bluff”. This is what our Swiss colleagues think Blick which depict the tenant of the Elysée as a “poker player”. “While assuming a large part of his bluff, this president […] thinks he keeps the best cards”. Same story in Italy. For the daily Corriere della sera (Center-right), Emmanuel Macron “plays the despair card of an early election, in which he hopes to revive an improbable republican front against the National Rally of Pen and the rising star Bardella”.
The double victory of the National Rally
It remains that satisfying the request of the president of the RN, who called on Sunday evening Emmanuel Macron to call new legislative elections, is more than ever seen as a double victory for the nationalist party. “Macron’s approach responds to a request from Le Pen’s party leader, Jordan Bardella,” underlines the daily across the Rhine. Bild while the Swiss The weather title: “In France, the far-right jackpot pushes Emmanuel Macron to dissolve the National Assembly”. In Belgium, where Prime Minister Alexander de Croo was forced to resign after an electoral defeat, The evening concludes: “the triumph of the extreme right leads the head of state to satisfy his demand: a return to the polls.”
A “dangerous” game, reviled by Blick, which warns of the consequences on a European scale of the possible arrival in Matignon of Jordan Bardella or Marine Le Pen, “heir to the putschists of French Algeria who wanted to kill the General!”.
“Emmanuel Macron bears a responsibility which therefore goes beyond the borders of France, warns the Swiss daily. And to accuse the French head of state of crystallizing the “potentially fatal spiral” in which the Twenty-Seven are floundering.