When President Emmanuel Macron's coalition began its campaign for the European elections last March at a rally in Lille, the podium was adorned with its slogan, "Besoin d'Europe" ("Need Europe"). At a rally just eight days ahead of the June 9 vote, a new slogan accompanied it, betraying a sense of nervousness: "Rien n'est joué." ("It's not over yet.")

Struggling in the polls just eight days before the vote to elect members of the European Parliament, the presidential coalition gathered for one last major event on Saturday, June 1. Even without high expectations, despite the bevy of ministers present at the Docks d'Aubervilliers, in northern Paris suburbs, the sparse attendance raised questions about the very ambitious figure of 2,500 attendees announced by the organizers.

The mood in the stands was not a celebratory one: "My impression is that things are only getting worse," grumbled Thomas, 50, a senior executive in a large company. Thibault, 40, a doctor in eastern France, had trouble understanding "why Valérie Hayer is so low" in the polls. "Purchasing power, perhaps? Too many taxes?" he wondered. The same pessimism was echoed by one of the coalition's candidates, who had considered he had a chance at being elected at the time of his nomination, and now sees only an "intervention of the Holy Spirit" as capable of sending him to Brussels.

The day's gathering wouldn't win over a single vote, voices in the presidential bloc agreed. Yet it could perhaps help to remotivate the party activists who came to the event, before they deploy themselves to markets and metro exits for the final week of campaigning. "That's the only thing that is effective," said one minister, adding: "Bilateral discussions, voter by voter. And that can only be achieved on the ground."

"It's not in rallies that an election campaign is played out," said François Bayrou, the head of the Macron-allied MoDem party, in his speech. "It's played out at the family table, it's played out at the moment when a friend meets another friend."

The leading figures of the presidential coalition took turns delivering the talking points they hoped activists would keep spreading until the weekend of June 9. Prime Minister Gabriel Attal once again singled out Jordan Bardella, the lead candidate for the far-right Rassemblement National (RN) party, who told him "eye to eye [in a televised debate] that he didn't even read bills before voting on them." He also attacked François-Xavier Bellamy, the Les Républicains (LR, conservative) party's lead candidate, "a man of ambiguous values and obtuse rhetoric," whose party "votes against the rest of their group [in the European Parliament], unable to influence the slightest issue in Europe."

You have 49.17% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only.