It was a painful litany for the Presidential Emmanuel Macron's camp on Sunday, June 30. Former minister Clément Beaune was eliminated in Paris in the first round the snap elections, Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin led in his stronghold by less than 1,000 votes over the far right, Minister for the Overseas Territories Marie Guévenoux withdrew her candidacy, while prominent MP Eric Woerth came in 10 points behind the far-right Rassemblement National (RN) in his longtime bastion.
The French president's brutal dissolution of the Assemblée Nationale on June 9 has resulted in the dissolution of his own majority, which came third behind the RN and the Nouveau Front Populaire left-wing alliance and is now threatened with virtual obliteration. "The decision to dissolve the Assemblée Nationale has, in effect, put an end to the political landscape that had resulted from the 2017 presidential election," said former prime minister Edouard Philippe, who 10 days earlier had blamed Macron for having "killed" the majority.
Beyond the severe electoral defeat inflicted on the presidential camp, further reinforced by the high turnout (66.7%), it's Macronism, in its essence, that self-dissolved on Sunday. Macron's original promise – that the French should "no longer have any reason to vote for the extremes" – has in fact been swept aside, a dark stain on his record. On Sunday, Marine Le Pen's party and its allies won over 10.5 million votes, almost four times more than in the 2017 parliamentary elections (3 million votes).
Seven years ago, the young Macron aspired to overcome the right-left divide and capitalize on the weakening of the old parties, which he described as useless rentiers responsible for the country's stalemates. On the evening of this failed dissolution, Macron not only sees the radicalized divide of the past returning, but he is also dependent on party agreements and partisan withdrawals to save a number of his candidates.
What's more, the president has so weakened the mainstream right, which he has butchered and humiliated, that he will no longer be able to rely on it in the future Assemblée. He is therefore forced to turn to the left, which he criticized repeatedly during the campaign, to form a possible "republican coalition," should the RN fail to win an absolute majority on July 7, thanks in particular to this republican front, so often given up for dead by the presidential camp.
On Sunday, Macron's camp once again lacked clarity on the subject, unable to give clear instructions for the second round, with everyone going their own way – some arguing voters should vote for neither RN nor La France Insoumise – before Prime Minister Gabriel Attal eventually called to "prevent the RN from having an absolute majority in the second round."
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