Everything is Coming Up Le Pen

Macron's big gamble is proving disastrous

I was not going to write about France for the rest of the week, but so much has happened in 24 hours that my audience needs to know.

When Emmanuel Macron announced his plans to dissolve parliament and hold snap elections, he was hoping to form a grand alliance between the center-right Republicans and the far-left NUPES. By supporting each other, these three coalition voters could block Le Pen’s candidates and prevent her party from winning many seats.

The feud between the Republicans and the Le Pens goes back to the creation of the Front National.

Jean Marie Le Pen, Marine’s father and founder of the party, was the boogeyman of France. A man who chattered endlessly about the Algerian War, how France should take back its colonies, and questioned the facts about the Holocaust. While the Republicans were the respectable center-right, the Le Pens were equivalent to the Klan, something no one with decency would ever align themselves with.

Then Marine took over, spent a decade detoxifying the party, kicked her own father out, and made it mainstream.

Still, the Republicans fought tooth and nail at opposing Marine, her party, and her bids to become President. After all, they had leverage; although they hadn’t made it to the second round of a presidential election, they still held the most seats of any center-right party in the legislature… until they didn’t.

In the 2022 election, the National Rally replaced the Republicans as the largest right-wing party in France.

So, it would only seem natural that the Republicans would join Macron against Le Pen. Only this time they didn’t.