Marlon Ettinger is the author of Zemmour and Gaullism and the cohost of Flep24, the French Legislative Elections Podcast for 2024.
Since his first presidential campaign in 2017, Emmanuel Macron has presented himself as the only barrier to chaos. But this snap election has shown how much Macron has helped build up the far-right threat in order to entrench his own power.
For years, French media has speculated on “Les Horaces,” a secret group of state officials who hope to join a far-right government. With Marine Le Pen’s party heading polls for the parliamentary elections, their plans look closer to reality than ever.
Emmanuel Macron continues to attack the French welfare state. Following his regressive retirement age reform that sparked mass protests, Macron is now seeking to force jobseekers to do unpaid work in exchange for their meager benefits.
Far-right leader Marine Le Pen has often claimed to defend France’s welfare state from liberals. But as millions struck against Emmanuel Macron’s retirement reform, Le Pen wasn’t with the protesters.
Emmanuel Macron has pushed through a rise in the pension age despite vast protests. In a televised address on Monday night, he said he’d “heard the anger” in the streets — yet his government’s new budget plans promise further attacks on France’s social model.
Far-right leader Marine Le Pen has often claimed to defend France’s welfare state from liberals. But as millions strike against Emmanuel Macron’s retirement reform, Le Pen seems to be aiding Macron’s agenda rather than siding with the protesters.
Once a major national force, today’s French Socialist Party finds itself outcompeted by both the radical left and neoliberal president Emmanuel Macron. But last month’s congress shows many leaders would rather kill the party than sign up for radical policies.
Today brought mass strikes against Emmanuel Macron’s “retirement reform” in France. Increasing both the pension age and the number of years workers have to work, the planned measure will see more French people die before they get any retirement at all.
In France’s parliamentary election, left-wing parties more than doubled their number of MPs, helping to deny Emmanuel Macron a majority. Yet the smaller forces who backed Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s coalition are already pulling back from any longer-term pact.
The first round of France’s parliamentary elections saw left-wing coalition NUPES come first nationally. President Emmanuel Macron’s allies reacted by tarring the Left as extremists — but Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s coalition looks closer than ever to power.
Emmanuel Macron claimed that France was missing a “king figure” — then spent five years ruling it like a monarch. His record has fueled Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s pledge to get rid of the presidency entirely and rebuild French democracy from the bottom up.
France’s center-right has long used its Gaullist origins to distinguish it from the heirs to Vichy. But today, xenophobes like Marine Le Pen are claiming de Gaulle’s legacy as they seek to overcome the historic split on the Right.