Emmanuel Macron has laid a trap for the hard-Right by calling a surprise parliamentary election, Elysee sources said.
Government officials suggested Mr Macron was allowing Marine Le Pen’s Rassemblement National (RN) to win control of the French parliament to expose her incompetence ahead of a presidential election.
Emmanuel Pellerin, of Mr Macron’s Renaissance party, added: “Everything points to the [hard-Right RN] winning a relative or absolute majority. But that forces the French to think about what is at stake.”
However, one MP from Mr Macron’s party said “we’re still in shock” over the snap election call.
An Élysée source told Reuters that the 46-year-old French president, whose power has been curtailed since he lost his absolute majority in parliament two years ago, calculated that there was a chance he could claw back a majority, taking everyone by surprise – including many in his own camp.
But even if this fails and the RN secures a parliamentary majority, his gamble is that three years of populism would unmask her party’s incompetence to voters and undermine her bid for the presidency in 2027, said the source.
Her party has already let it be known that Jordan Bardella, 28, who ran RN’s European election campaign and won 31.5 per cent of the vote – more than twice that of Macron’s party – would become prime minister should the party secure a majority next month.
“I knew this option was on the table, but when it becomes reality it’s something else ... I didn’t sleep last night,” said the source.
President Macron said on Monday that he was “confident” the French would “make the right choice for themselves and for future generations”.