The vice-president of France's far-right Rassemblement National (RN) party on Monday, June 10, said the party's 28-year-old leader, Jordan Bardella, would be its contender for prime minister if it won a majority in snap elections. "Jordan Bardella is our candidate" for the prime minister's office, Sébastien Chenu told RTL radio, after President Emmanuel Macron announced snap parliamentary polls following the far right's victory over his alliance in EU elections on Sunday.
Macron said Monday he was confident the French would make the "right choice" in the snap elections. "I am confident in the capacity of the French people to make the right choice for themselves and for future generations," Macron wrote on X. "My sole ambition is to be useful to our country that I love so much."
France will go to the polls to vote for a new Assemblée Nationale on June 30, with a second round on July 7, Macron announced late Sunday. In a televised address, he warned of the danger of "the rise of nationalists and demagogues" for France and its place in Europe. He said he knew he could count on voters to "choose to write history instead of being subjected to it". Macron noted that far-right parties in France managed to take almost 40% of the vote.
Macron hopes to win back the absolute majority he lost in the Assemblée after winning a second term in 2022 legislative elections. But some fear the anti-immigration RN could instead win, forcing Macron to work in an uncomfortable "cohabitation" with a far-right prime minister, a term used in France when the president and prime minister come from opposing political camps.
The secretary general of Macron's Renaissance party, Foreign Minister Stéphane Sejourné, will be "fully engaged" in the battle for parliament seats as well as continue his job as minister, his team said.
Socialist party chief Olivier Faure called for the setting up of "a popular front against the far right". "The far right is not just at the gates of power, but has a foot in the door," he told France Info public radio.