Macron calls on parties to ally against National Rally

France’s president Emmanuel Macron has called on all parties to forge an alliance against the far-right National Rally party of Marine Le Pen and defended his shock move to call a snap election.

- ANDY GREGORY

In a press conference that amounted to a campaign speech, Mr Macron insisted that dissolving the French parliament was “the only republican decision” available to him after National Rally (RN) trounced his centrist alliance in European parliament elections on Sunday.

“I do not want to give the keys to power to the far right in [the presidential election of] 2027, so I fully accept having triggered a movement to provide clarification,” he said, and added that he had called the election to hold back “extremes”. He said he believed the French people would vote to keep National Rally out.

Casting the election as “a test of truth between those who choose to strengthen their own hand and those who choose to strengthen the hand of France”, Mr Macron said he would not quit if his camp loses and he would not debate against Ms Le Pen.

“It’s about allowing political forces chosen by the French to be able to govern,” he said, adding that it’s “awkward to think it has to be the extreme right or political extremes. Or maybe you’ve got the spirit of defeat spread everywhere... Things are simple today: we have unnatural alliances at both extremes, who quite agree on nothing except the jobs to be shared.”