Editorial: Emmanuel Macron’s refusal to accept a minority left government was a mistake. Having lost the election he needs to give ground

Emmanuel Macron’s refusal to accept a minority left government was a mistake. Having lost the election he needs to give ground

Wed 28 Aug 2024 19.30 CEST

  • inlandempireOPEnglish
    3·
    20 days ago

    Key point:

    Through a combination of tactical subtlety, daring and technocratic brio, Mr Macron has divided and ruled French politics since 2017. But by indulging his characteristic desire to remain in complete control of events, even after losing, he is acting against the best interests of the country he leads.

    Plummeting trust in politics has contributed to the rise of the far right across Europe, as well as in France. Against that backdrop, refusing to grant the election’s narrow victors at least a chance to forge a consensus is unwise and shortsighted. Mr Macron has in part justified his stance by the posing of a false equivalence of extremes between Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s hard-left France Unbowed party (LFI) and Ms Le Pen’s Rassemblement National. But after repeatedly relying on a broad republican front, including LFI, to keep Ms Le Pen out of power, that is nakedly disingenuous.