Campaigning kicks off in France for snap election

[June 17, 2024]  PARIS (Reuters) -Campaigning kicked off on Monday for France's snap parliamentary election which opinion polls suggest the far-right National Rally will win, with President Emmanuel Macron's centrist alliance coming third, behind a leftwing ticket.

Political uncertainty has triggered heavy selling of French bonds and stocks after Macron unexpectedly called the election, following a trouncing of his ruling centrist party by Marine Le Pen's National Rally (RN) in European Parliament elections.

Macron's gamble, which included catching other parties off-guard with just a few weeks to prepare for the ballot, could back-fire, a poll by Ifop for the Journal du Dimanche showed.

The poll suggests the eurosceptic, anti-immigration RN will get 35% of the votes in the first round on June 30, with 26% for a fragile alliance of leftwing parties, and just 19% for Macron. The second round will take place on July 7.

"We're going into uncharted territory, and in my opinion, we are going to move towards an ungovernable Assembly," 60-year-old voter Maxime Chetrit said.

Marie Balta, a retiree from Nimes, in southern France, shared this concern, but said the election could give parliament more power over what the president and government do.

"It's going to be very difficult, to have a tripartite Assembly with two strong blocks and a much smaller middle, but it's perhaps a chance to return to more democracy," she said.

STARTING GUN

Official campaigning began on Monday after a week in which parties scrambled to field candidates and strike alliances.

Macron's allies repeated warnings that a victory for RN, or for the left, could create a financial crisis. A victory for either would be catastrophic for France, its economy and jobs, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal told RTL radio.

Even the captain of France's football team, Kylian Mbappe, has weighed in, urging young people to "make a difference" at a time when "extremes" were knocking on the door of power.

French President Emmanuel Macron attends a press conference about the priorities of his Renaissance party and its allies ahead of the early legislative elections in Paris, France, June 12, 2024. REUTERS/Stephane Mahe

Some far-right politicians said the French player was out of touch with reality.

Macron gathered key ministers and aides on Sunday evening to discuss the election, a source who took part in the meeting said, adding that they decided not to field any candidates in about 60 constituencies - out of 577 - where they considered that another mainstream candidate was in a better position to win.

But some in Macron's camp expressed doubts publicly about the snap election.

"This (dissolution of parliament) is the decision of the president, it's his prerogative," Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire told France Inter radio on Sunday.

"What I observe is that it has created in our country, among the French people, everywhere, worries, incomprehension, sometimes anger. That's what I see among our voters."

The RN, which has already said it would slash VAT on energy and lower the retirement age, is set to detail its economic programme in the coming days.

Meanwhile, European Central Bank policymakers have no plan to discuss emergency purchases of French bonds and consider it is for French politicians to reassure investors spooked by the prospect of a far-right government, five sources told Reuters.

(Reporting by Yiming Woo, Ingrid Melander, Elizabeth Pineau, Sudip Kar-Gupta; editing by Christina Fincher)

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