Pierre-Jerome Hénin

FRANCE 24 English

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00:00put it on silent, watching the Euros, put it on silent. It is a big night here in France tonight.

00:04Pierre Gérard, I want your thoughts. A lot of analysts talk about the big things that might

00:09have led to this decision, this big moment by Emmanuel Macron to call this gamble. Immigration,

00:16irritation at the President himself, his attitude as some see, and also inflation,

00:22the cost of living. Talk to me about the importance of those three factors.

00:25I think that the decision, I mean, the very last thing that has pushed him to do so was the result

00:30of the European elections. This was absolutely disastrous for his camp, even though there's a

00:36lot to be said. But as one put it, an election is made to be won. But we can talk about if we

00:43have some time later on to talk about the European elections, or actually the absence of campaign,

00:47because actually there was absolutely no campaign. But that's another topic. I think there are

00:52institutional reasons, political reasons, and personal reasons for the fact that Emmanuel

00:56Macron has chosen to do that snap election. It was very difficult for him to conduct the country

01:04with the very shaky alliances in the National Assembly. And as you've all noticed, the National

01:11Assembly had turned into a circus over the past weeks. And it was a real blow, I mean, to democracy.

01:17So I think it was one of the important reasons. He had no majority to pass his laws. And it was

01:23at each time extremely difficult for him to form alliances to do so. And then you have personal

01:28reasons. Very difficult to know how a man reacts to such a blow as were the European elections.

01:35The pressure around him, there's been a lot of talks about councillors at the Elysee Palace

01:40advising him to do so. But it was not an overnight decision. It has been discussed,

01:44it had been discussed according to them for the past weeks. So they took that decision. I don't

01:50know whether it'll be the good one. But certainly, as you've put it, the turnout, which is extremely

01:58important, it hasn't been so high since the late 1970s, is a good sign for democracy, at least the

02:05debate. We will see what will come out of it. But at least for the debate and the sake of the

02:10democracy, it is very important. The number of proxies, over two million proxies, who will

02:16benefit from it, we will also know it. But still, it's another very positive sign for the debate

02:21and the positive life of democracy in France. Now, the two main questions, who will benefit from it?

02:30How many three-way contests will we have as of Tuesday evening? Because Tuesday evening is a

02:37deadline to declare yourself as a candidate for the second round. Pierre Giron, that's a nice place to pick up.

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