“Emmanuel Macron should never have been elected president of France in 2017”, lance The vanguard. At least in theory. No personal adventure, no alternative party was to find its place in the French political architecture carefully thought out by General de Gaulle. The V systeme République is entirely designed to strengthen the major political parties and guarantee them solid government majorities, recalls the Catalan daily.
But, in 2017, Emmanuel Macron broke this precious balance. “It was an anomaly.” One term later, it’s not. The first round confirms that the French political landscape has been redrawn: the Socialist Party and Les Républicains have been wiped out, La République en Marche and the National Rally have become the new poles of the French political landscape. For The vanguard, “if François Mitterrand and Jacques Chirac were still alive, they would not believe their eyes”.
The only surprise of this first round is the place of “referent of the left” occupied by the extreme left party of Jean-Luc Mélenchon, La France insoumise, which obtained 20% of the vote. As for Éric Zemmour, he finally remained “far below expectations” (7 %).
Be careful, however, warn The vanguard : the margin between Emmanuel Macron and his competitor is much smaller than five years ago. The possibility that Le Pen is at the Élysée is perhaps a “nightmare”, but it is no longer “a view of the mind”.
“If that happened, it would be a new – and dangerous – anomaly.”