On June 30, local time, the first round of legislative elections in France ended, and the far-right National Alliance led by Marine Le Pen won a big victory, winning about 34% of the votes, almost double the first round of the 2022 election. Le Pen's victory is not surprising, given that France's far-right had already risen by the time of last month's vote in the European Parliament elections.
But to the disappointment of the current French president, Emmanuel Macron, the centrist coalition he led did not even finish second, with only 22% of the vote, behind Jean-Luc Mélenchon's coalition of the New Popular Front of the Left (29.1%), which was a fiasco.
The analysis notes that many French voters are disappointed with inflation and other economic problems, as well as with Macron's leadership, believing that he is arrogant and out of touch with people's lives. And such sentiments are exploited by the far right, constantly promoting them through social media, especially to expand their influence among young people.
The election was held at Macron's request, and he announced the dissolution of the National Assembly and the early holding of legislative elections, which was also considered a huge risk, but also made Le Pen happy.
Despite Le Pen's victory, it remains unclear whether Le Pen's party will win an absolute majority in the second round of elections to the lower house of the new National Assembly on July 7 and secure the premiership.
Macron is calling on voters to unite against the rise of the far right in the second round. However, if Le Pen wins, France will form the first far-right government since World War II, which is also what many French people do not want to see, some people have rallied many times to protest, but judging from the vote rate of Le Pen, there are also quite a lot of supporters.
If Le Pen continues to win, then her 28-year-old protégé Jordan Bhadra will become prime minister, but Macron is still president, and he has already stated that he will not step down before the end of his term in 2027. But he will also have to accept the power-sharing arrangement, and the situation will be quite awkward.
On the 30th, Macron and his wife Brigitte Macron returned to their hometown of Le Touquet-Paris-Plage, where they need to vote.
Even though it's summer, the temperature is still a bit low (the maximum temperature is less than 20 degrees Celsius), as evidenced by the long scarf that Macron wears (he and Brigitte both change their clothes when they go to the polls).
Macron walked on the streets of his hometown holding hands with his beloved wife, smiling and looking very approachable, but his heart was quite turbulent, after all, he would not be unaware that the far-right led by Le Pen was already on the rise, but he might not think that he would not even get a second place.
The 71-year-old Brigitte wears jeans that show off her slender legs, and the logo on the denim top is quite conspicuous. Although she is known to have a preference for Louis Vuitton (LV), and almost all of her clothes are from this luxury brand, it is rare for her to display her logo.
In fact, it is really rare for a first lady like Brigitte to "blatantly" promote a commercial brand, which is enough to show how close she is to the Arnault family, which controls the fashion empire in France and even the world, and this may be one of the reasons why the French people accuse Macron of arrogance and the disconnection of ordinary people's lives.