The temptation to take the worst path is not inevitable. On Sunday, July 7, the far-right Rassemblement National's (RN) hope of a strong relative, or even absolute, majority dwindled to a total of 143 lawmakers, including their allies who came from Les Républicans (LR). Despite their victory in the European elections and their high score in the first round of the parliamentary elections, this change in trend, which was remarkably drastic between the two election Sundays in France, is not only due to the effective operation of the republican front through the withdrawal of candidates and vote transfers from highly mobilized voters.
It is also the product of the "clarification" sought by Emmanuel Macron's inconsequential decision to dissolve the Assemblée Nationale. Yes, the RN remains a far-right party, with an ideology steeped in xenophobia. The disguise that has been in place for years cracked on all sides during this campaign, exposing a host of anti-Semitic, racist or homophobic candidates, unprepared for the roles they were seeking. It also revealed a policy platform that continues to focus on discrimination, stigmatization and the rejection of entire groups of people.
In recent years, new, older voters and members of leading circles have been led astray by these false pretenses. They ended up believing that the good looks of Jordan Bardella, the young straw man of the Le Pen clan, could be trusted. On Sunday, a clear majority of French people rejected the worst of politics, casting their votes against the more than 9 million fellow citizens who voted for the RN. But this number alone prevents us from feeling more than a brief sense of relief.
The far-right party continues to have strong support across large swathes of the country. By gaining several dozen seats, it will bolster its finances and send its largest-ever representation in the new Assemblée Nationale. It will also take advantage of the opportunity to bolster its grassroots network, which is a key aspect of its strategy to gain recognition. Above all, it will remain in the comfortable position of being in the opposition in a chamber where securing the majority is likely to prove painful.
A different way of doing things
In fact, Macron's decision to dissolve the Assemblée backfired, leading to a significant decrease in his own majority by almost 100 seats. Statements from its leaders, starting with Macron's former prime minister Edouard Philippe, weakened the presidential coalition, which was surpassed by the Nouveau Front Populaire (NFP). Although the left-wing alliance, with 182 lawmakers, is still a long way from an absolute majority, it is well-positioned to find a successor for Prime Minister Gabriel Attal.
On Sunday evening, radical left leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon did what he knows how to do best: Make a bold and assertive statement. His stance seemed all the more uncompromising, given that his party, La France Insoumise (LFI), no longer holds the same position of strength it did during the time of the NUPES, the NFP's predecessor. The Socialists made by far the most gains, with 59 seats. With the Greens, Communists and those who have been purged from or have fled LFI –almost all of those in that last category were re-elected on Sunday – the Socialists can now contribute to a different approach in convincing and taking action. Something opposite to the practices of LFI, the authors of the other form of the worst of politics, characterized by continuous aggressive debates and collective disagreements over the past two years.
With this new Assemblée, and a majority yet to be built, there is an opportunity to implement a different policy, one that is calmer but no less resolute. This entails preventing the far right from monopolizing the support of those who feel abandoned, by addressing issues such as access to healthcare, education and public services, the quest for fairness in the climate transition, the reduction of inequalities, the dismantling of urban ghettos and the fight against drug trafficking, which are driving the RN vote.
In response to the conservative nostalgia of a part of France that thought it could go back in time, the best thing to do would be to revive a word that was championed by Macron during his first successful presidential campaign but was never actually implemented: "progressivism."