The Patriot Post® · Macron's Calculated Risk Comes Back to Bite Him

After a great showing in the first round of elections, France’s conservatives, the National Rally, performed the worst during Sunday’s runoff elections. However, President Emmanuel Macron probably came out as the biggest loser.

Macron is the leader of the coalition of centrists in France, and though his party came in second in terms of seats, his overall strategy guaranteed that the rest of his presidency would be a lame duck.

Macron did it to himself. By pushing the “anyone but Le Pen” agenda (Marine Le Pen is the leader of the National Rally), he forged an unholy alliance with the far-leftist coalition known as the New Popular Front. To thwart the National Rally from gaining seats, the centrists and leftists teamed up. For the runoffs in which there were three candidates, they had the candidate least likely to beat the conservative drop out. The National Rally did earn the most votes, but because of this political calculation, the party ended up with significantly fewer seats than anticipated.

Macron teamed up with leftists with whom he has no intention of actually working. He declared that he would not partner with France Unbowed, a radical leftist group led by Jean-Luc Mélenchon. Mélenchon is a bit of an authoritarian, and his party has an anti-Semitism problem that was exposed after October 7.

Mélenchon has also called “native French” the problem in the immigration crisis. According to him, it’s because the French people oppose social cohesion. The French don’t oppose social cohesion; they oppose the destruction of their culture by an immigrant population that refuses to assimilate.

This is particularly ironic because Macron actively works against the rise of populism by accusing populists of being anti-Semites, and yet he was willing to work with unabashed Jew-haters to thwart a conservative trouncing.

Macron has said that he is willing to work with the other parts of the leftist coalition — namely, the socialists and the Greens. Whether or not the feeling is mutual remains to be seen.

Another election hiccup is that there is no clear majority party in the National Assembly, which means there is no clear party to put forth a prime minister. This has thrown Parliament into disarray, with so many competing interests having to strike deals and negotiate in order for a new government to be achieved. The current prime minister, Gabriel Attal, offered his resignation, which Macron refused, citing the need for the National Assembly to reorganize itself. Attal will stay on at least through the summer Olympics.

Macron’s calculated risk ultimately came back to bite him. This whole snap-election effort was his attempt to humble the National Rally. He was so desperate to keep conservatives out of power that he was willing to make a deal with the devil — and in doing so stymied his own presidential powers.