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PARIS, 12 Jun (AP) \u2014 French President Emmanuel Macron defended his decision to call sudden elections after his party\u2019s crushing defeat in the European parliamentary vote, insisting on Wednesday voters will ultimately choose the \u201cprogressive bloc\u201d over the far-right.<\/p>\n
A somber-looking Macron said his move to organize early legislative elections, to take place in two rounds on June 30 and July 7, shows his \u201cconfidence\u201d into the French people. He urged moderate politicians from the left and the right to regroup with his own centrist alliance to defeat the far-right.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the French are intelligent, they see what\u2019s being done, what\u2019s coherent and what\u2019s not, and they know what to do,\u201d Macron said. He added: \u201cI don\u2019t believe at all that the worst can happen. You see, I\u2019m an indefatigable optimist.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 46 year-old president addressed French voters in a news conference for the first time since his stunning decision on Sunday to dissolve the National Assembly, France\u2019s lower house of parliament, after the far-right National Rally party of Marine Le Pen triumphed at the vote for the European Parliament.<\/p>\n
Macron sought to address concerns of those who fear the risky move could result in the French far-right leading a government for the first time since World War II.<\/p>\n
Since the general elections were announced on Sunday evening, crowds have been gathering every day in Paris and across the country to protest against the National Rally.<\/p>\n
Macron was adamant in his faith in the voters to refuse to choose the extremes of both sides of the political spectrum. He assured that he was not falling into defeatism and said he would serve out his second presidential term regardless of the outcome of the legislative vote.<\/p>\n
Macron said his decision is \u201cabout allowing political forces chosen by the French to be able to govern.\u201d He added that it\u2019s \u201cawkward to think it has to be the extreme right or political extremes. Or maybe you\u2019ve got the spirit of defeat spread everywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIf that\u2019s what people are afraid of, it\u2019s time now to take action,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Macron justified his decision by the fact that he could not ignore the new political reality after his pro-European party was handed a chastening defeat and garnered less than half the support of the National Rally with its star leader, Jordan Bardella.<\/p>\n
Unlike in his recent national addresses in which Macron focused on Russia\u2019s war in Ukraine and ways Europe should forge a common defense policy, independent of the United States, and shore up trade protections against China, the French president stuck to his country\u2019s internal issues favored by the surging right, including curbing immigration, fighting crime and Islamic separatism in France.<\/p>\n
Macron, who has three years left of his second presidential term, hopes voters will band together to contain the far-right in national elections in a way they didn\u2019t in European ones. He called on \u201cmen and women of goodwill who were able to say \u2018no\u2019 to extremes on the left and the right to join together to be able to build a joint project\u201d for the country.<\/p>\n
\u201cThings are simple today: we have unnatural alliances at both extremes, who quite agree on nothing except the jobs to be shared, and who will not be able to implement any program,\u201d Macron said.<\/p>\n
While he seemed to project the kind of enthusiasm that helped bring him to the presidency in 2017, analysts say French voters are more pessimistic about their future, and see Macron as increasingly out of touch with real life and pocketbook problems.<\/p>\n
The French president acknowledged some faults committed by his pro-business centrist party while harshly criticizing some conservatives who have decided to team up with Le Pen\u2019s National Rally, which has a history of racism and xenophobia. He scathingly called an alliance formed by parties on the left as \u201cunusual and incoherent\u201d after they included the hard-left France Unbowed of Jean-Luc M\u00e9lenchon who, Macron said \u201cjustified anti-Semitic policies\u201d in the wake of the Israel-Hamas war.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not perfect, we haven\u2019t done everything right, but we have results… and above all, we know how to act,\u201d Macron said of his Renaissance party, adding that the \u201cfar-right (is) the main danger\u201d in the upcoming election.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe question is who will govern the country tomorrow?\u201d he asked. \u201cThe far-right and a few associates, or the democratic, progressive bloc? That\u2019s the fundamental question.\u201d<\/p>\n
Potential alliances and France\u2019s two-round voting system in national elections make the outcome of the vote highly uncertain.<\/p>\n
Opposition parties on the left and right have been scrambling to form alliances and field candidates in the early legislative balloting.<\/p>\n
While sharp differences between parties remain on either side of the political spectrum, prominent figures calling for a united front appear to have one thing in common: They don\u2019t want to cooperate with Macron.<\/p>\n
Despite their divisions, left-wing parties agreed late Monday to form an alliance that includes the Greens, the Socialists, the Communists and the far-left France Unbowed.<\/p>\n
Le Pen is working to consolidate power on the right in efforts to translate the European triumph into a national win and come closer to claiming power. Her party is expected to win the most French seats in the European Parliament, potentially as many as 30 of France\u2019s 81.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
PARIS, 12 Jun (AP) \u2014 French President Emmanuel Macron defended his decision to call sudden elections after his party\u2019s crushing defeat in the European parliamentary vote, insisting on Wednesday voters will ultimately choose the \u201cprogressive bloc\u201d over the far-right. A somber-looking Macron said his move to organize early legislative elections, to take place in two […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-242090","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242090","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=242090"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242090\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}