Far-right leader Bardella says he needs absolute majority to govern
France effectively
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[June 18, 2024]
PARIS (Reuters) - The leader of France's far-right
National Rally (RN), Jordan Bardella, appealed to voters on Tuesday to
hand his party an absolute majority in upcoming parliamentary elections
so that it is able to govern effectively.
Bardella's eurosceptic, anti-immigration party has its first real chance
of winning national power in the June 30 and July 7 ballot. Opinion
polls have consistently placed the RN first since President Emmanuel
Macron's shock decision this month to dissolve parliament.
But pollsters who have attempted the tricky exercise of making a
second-round forecast for France's 577 constituencies see the RN failing
to secure the absolute majority that would guarantee its ability to pass
laws without allies.
"I'm not going to sell to the French reforms that I cannot carry out.
I'm telling them that in order to act, I need an absolute majority,"
Bardella told CNews TV.
He had the same message for Le Parisien newspaper, urging voters to
rally behind him and Marine Le Pen, the RN's former leader and its
candidate in France's next presidential election due in 2027.
"To govern, I need an absolute majority," he said, hinting that the RN
might turn down any offer to form a government if it does not reach the
289 seat threshold along with close allies.
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"Who can believe that we would be able to change the daily lives of the
French by cohabitation with a relative majority? No one. I say to the
French: to try us, we need an absolute majority."
Bardella, 28, has watered down some of his party's pledges amid
investors' concerns about their impact on the public finances, saying an
RN government would not immediately cut VAT on a list of 100 essential
goods.
COSTLY PLANS
But in his comments to Le Parisien he also confirmed costly plans to
quickly slash VAT on petrol, heating fuel, electricity and gas to 5.5%
from 20%, saying he wanted that to be his first move as prime minister.
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![](../images/061824PIX/news_z50.jpg)
Jordan Bardella, President of the French far-right National Rally (Rassemblement
National - RN) party, visits a farm on his first campaign trip for
the upcoming French parliamentary elections, in Chuelles, near
Montargis, France, June 14, 2024. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier/File Photo
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2024/Jun/18/images/ads/current/library_lda_HEROES_2024.png)
"If I run the country without an absolute majority, I won't be able
to cut VAT on fuel and on gas ... I won't be able to drastically cut
immigration," he told Le Parisien.
The RN is yet to detail its economic policies, but Bardella said
some of its plans would be financed by scrapping tax breaks.
"There is a tax break for shipping firms that costs the state 5
billion euros and I want to end this tax break," he said.
French shipping giant CMA CGM became France's most profitable
company in 2022, overtaking the likes of TotalEnergies and luxury
giant LVMH, as a post-COVID boom in shipping boosted its annual net
profit to nearly $25 billion.
CMA CGM, headed by Rodolphe Saade and owned by his family, used its
earnings for a flurry of acquisitions in logistics, port terminals
and French media, including a deal to acquire news channel BFM TV.
CMA CGM declined to comment when asked about Bardella's comments.
(Reporting by Dominique Vidalon, Ingrid Melander, Gus Trompiz,
writing by Ingrid Melander; Editing by Gareth Jones)
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