French far-right leader Jordan Bardella on Tuesday, June 18, urged voters to give his alliance a clear majority in snap polls to be able to act unhampered as prime minister, while criticizing footballer Kylian Mbappé for urging a vote against extremes. "I need an absolute majority," Bardella, the 28-year-old leader of the far-right Rassemblement National (RN) party, told broadcasters CNews and Europe 1. "I don't want to be the president's assistant," he said.
President Emmanuel Macron, who lost his absolute majority in parliament in 2022, called for the legislative vote on June 30, with a second round on July 7, after the RN trounced his centrist alliance in European elections. His risky gamble to gain a better hold over the lower chamber has caused the left and right to form eleventh-hour alliances to garner more votes in the elections just weeks before Paris hosts the Olympics in July and August.
Bardella, whose party has aligned itself with part of the traditional right, is hoping to win enough seats to become the youngest-ever leader of the French government. Voters have a "historic opportunity to change the course of history," he said. If voters "place the country in a situation of relative majority," he said, "we could not change things."
The chance that the far right could take power for the first time in France has set alarm bells ringing across the country, with football stars representing Les Bleus at Euro 2024 in Germany also weighing in. Bardella said he admired the players, including the iconic Mbappé who urged France to vote against "extremes," but indicated that they should stay out of politics. "You need to respect everyone's vote," he said. "I am not sure that in this very difficult period (...) that this is appreciated by people."
"And when you have the luck to have a huge salary, be a multimillionaire, the chance to travel in a private jet, I am a little annoyed to see these sports figures giving lessons to people who (...) struggle to make ends meet."
Also on Tuesday, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, 35, the youngest person to lead the country's government, urged voters to choose his party's candidates from the first round as the only "credible" alternative to keep the far right and hard left out of power. He said the far right and hard left had policies that would lead France "straight to bankruptcy" if they won.
François Bayrou, a key ally of the president, told another radio channel, Sud Radio, that the country faced two "menacing blocs" on either side on the political spectrum. He said he would do all he could to fight two options he described as "the plague and cholera."