'This is clearly a gamble and many think it's too risky'

FRANCE 24 English

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00:00 Well this is clearly a gamble and many on the left and even in his own ranks and in the government think it's too risky.

00:08 Only a couple of weeks or so to go before the parliamentary elections after the president decided to dissolve parliament.

00:17 And that's very little time to actually campaign, little time to overturn these results.

00:24 With the far-right national rally of Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella getting more than twice the amount of votes that Valérie Ayer for president Macron's side got.

00:35 So will they have time to overturn those results? At the same time did president Emmanuel Macron really have a choice?

00:44 He wants to put the French people in front of their responsibilities. Do they want to be governed by the French far-right?

00:51 They will have to say that in the coming ballot.

00:55 And also the French president was struggling in parliament to pass his laws because his side did not hold an absolute majority.

01:04 Therefore he and his troops needed to conclude alliances on such or such measure in order to pass laws and it was extremely tricky for him.

01:16 President Emmanuel Macron said it loud and clear yesterday there's a need for clarity, for harmony, for the French people to have their say.

01:24 And this is what's happening with these parliamentary elections called for June 30th and July 7th.

01:31 Now the news has taken everybody aback but surely the national rally are sensing opportunity after their electoral exploits yesterday.

01:43 Well let me tell you Oliver, shortly after the results came in yesterday the national rally sent a statement to journalists saying

01:51 we are ready to build a majority to rule France.

01:56 And that says it all really. The French far-right has never been so close to getting into power.

02:02 They believe that they can finally do it, that they can win a majority, that they can be the leading party in France.

02:11 They were the leading party in the recent European elections and they now need to do the same thing in the parliamentary ones.

02:20 For the French far-right, this is first and foremost the sign, these recent results, that the French people have had enough of President Macron,

02:31 have had enough of their policies and the French far-right already saying that if they get into power they will stop the rise in energy prices.

02:40 They will overturn President Emmanuel Macron's pension reform and many of his reforms.

02:47 For the French far-right, it's a historic result that they've got in these European elections

02:53 and now they need to campaign hard in order to capitalise on that and be the winning side in the parliamentary elections.

03:01 And it's not just the far-right that Emmanuel Macron is unpopular with in France.

03:08 The left don't particularly like him either. How is the left reacting to this snap decision?

03:15 Yesterday, André Glucksmann, who represents the Socialist Party, said it was a crazy decision, it was the wrong decision

03:25 and that President Emmanuel Macron was basically placing France in the hands of the French far-right.

03:33 And then this morning you've got the boss of the Socialist Party, Olivier Ruffin, and other figures, and Olivier Faure,

03:39 as well as other figures like François Ruffin for the radical left France Unbound, calling for a Front Populaire, a new left-wing front.

03:49 It would be a coalition, social and environmental coalition, bringing together all parties on the left to form a bloc

03:58 and to stand united in these coming parliamentary elections.

04:03 The aim of that is very clear, stand a chance to win the elections, get a left-wing figure in the seat of the Prime Minister instead of Gabriel Attal.

04:13 Anyway, I can tell you here in France this morning, many reactions to this decision to dissolve Parliament.

04:20 The National Assembly just behind me, new seats up for grabs. That will be at the end of the month and there's very little time to campaign.

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