It is said that Nero watched Rome burn while reciting poetry and playing the lyre. Is Emmanuel Macron smiling these days as he watches our country sink into crisis? Is he proud and satisfied to have gambled France's destiny on the roll of the dice, when nothing but his wounded pride compelled him to dissolve the Assemblée Nationale?

We don't know, and in the end, it doesn't really matter anymore. What we do know is that we are being presided over by a teenager who is having fun striking matches in a gas station while three shadow advisers cheer him on enthusiastically. We also know that the only thing that matters now is the absolute necessity of closing the gates of Hell he has opened. That means preventing the far-right from taking power on July 7, with 300 Rassemblement National (RN, far-right) MPs in the Assemblée, Jordan Bardella as prime minister, Thierry Mariani as foreign minister, Marion Maréchal as national education minister and Eric Ciotti as interior minister.

In less than a month, France could be governed by the Le Pen family and its affiliates. What is the meaning of this phrase, which still remains hard to comprehend when spoken? It means that the continent's leading military power would be run by Kremlin corroborators. It would mean methodical deconstruction of the European project and the undermining of the rule of law. A promise has already been made to "march" on the Constitutional Council. It would mean the privatization of public broadcasting services (let's be clear: it would be sold to far-right billionaire Vincent Bolloré) and the implementation of a system to prioritize hospital patients, which would result in the termination of State Medical Aid.

Responsability

At such a fundamental moment of change, a politician's first duty is to tell the truth. It would be a lie to feign delight at "the people being given a voice," or to pretend that the union of the left, hastily put together to resist the worst, is a marriage of love. No, this is not a time for celebration, but for responsibility.

I understand the confusion of many voters who voted on June 9 for the social-democratic, Green and pro-European path I opened up during the European campaign. I have met them in the street and read their letters. But when the far right is on the doorstep of power, we're obliged to rank these threats. When the RN alone is capable of winning an absolute majority in the Assemblée Nationale in less than three weeks' time, who could reasonably believe that the main threat to the French Republic comes from a divided La France Insoumise (LFI, radical left), diluted in a broad political alliance over which it has no control?

You have 49.03% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only.