Irish Examiner view: Left-wing alliance thwarts Marine Le Pen's ambitions in French elections
People gathered late on Sunday in Paris as exit polls suggested the left-wing coalition that quickly banded together since last week's first-round vote would prevail in their aim of limiting the surging right wing in the legislative elections. Picture: Aurelien Morissard/AP
As the exit polls arrived last night from the second round of voting in France’s parliamentary elections, a picture began to emerge of the performance of the right-wing Rassemblement National (RN) parliamentary group of Marine Le Pen.
And it was one in which their ambitions to become a prime influence in one of the great European nations seem to have been thwarted by a hastily assembled coalitions of centrists, greens, left wingers, and communists, who tactically withdrew third candidates from more than 200 seats in order to give French voters a simple and contrasting choice.
The New Popular Front was expected to take the most seats, with Emmanuel Macron’s Ensemble Alliance in second place and RN beaten into third.
While Macron’s gamble to call a snap election last month was to some extent vindicated, it leaves him in an unenviable position — in office until 2027, but shorn of power and forced to deal with opponents he despises.
It was his choice to dissolve the National Assembly and call parliamentary elections after his Renaissance Party trailed a poor third to RN at the European elections in June.
In a televised address, he said he had made the decision to advance the dates of elections by three years in response to “the rise of nationalists and demagogues”. They were, he said, a danger to France’s position in Europe and the world.
“Now is the time for clarification,” Macron told Le Figaro. “Dissolution is the clearest, most radical and strongest gesture. A gesture of great confidence in the French people.”
Turnout yesterday was at its highest for 40 years. Sports stars such as Kylian Mbappe and Olivier Giroud signed a manifesto in the sports daily L’Equipe attacking the advance of the far right and urging people to vote.
It’s an oft-quoted truism of French politics that, in the first round, you vote for what you want; in the second, you vote against what you fear. For many citoyens and citoyennes, the difficulties of governing France created by their choices will be preferable to ceding control to the right for the first time since Marshal Pétain’s Vichy collaborationists of the 1940s.
The new minister in the transport department, James Lawless, has much to consider. However, he can take on his new portfolio in the knowledge that any improvement at all will attract the attention of a grateful nation. Top of the list for the TD for Kildare North is to bring about a reduction in road deaths. So far this year, 97 people have died in traffic accidents — an increase of 12 over the same period in 2023.
In early interviews, Mr Lawless has stressed the desirability of strengthening the NCT. He has also stated that repairs to roads, broken and cracked through weather becoming ever more extreme, will be a priority.
While no politician ever lucked out by saying they will fix potholes, enforcement and penalties must also be front of mind — particularly after alarming new Garda statistics on the influence of drug taking on drivers.
These show that detections for drug driving have increased by as much as 65% in some counties. Out of 46,165 mandatory checkpoints for intoxicants conducted, 8,863 produced arrests for driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs. One-third of the drivers who had samples analysed were found to have consumed some form of drug.
Drink driving detections declined by 25% in Westmeath but drug driving increased by 65%. In Cork, the increase was 34%. Road Safety Authority figures suggest that over a third of drivers who are killed on the road have drugs in their system, a toll which has risen from 10%.
The most commonly used recreational drugs in Ireland are cannabis, cocaine and ecstacy. Containing the spread of illegal narcotics and stimulants is one of the challenges of the age. Unless we do, what the RSA describes as the “carnage” on our roads is unlikely to diminish.
These were the contenders identified by as contenders for the Democratic candidature for the White House in the event that Joe Biden decides to withdraw from the race, an option which has not gone away despite his assertion in a carefully managed one-to-one TV interview that “only the Lord Almighty” will prevent him pursuing his return to the Oval Office.
Such divine intervention is unlikely, but a decision has to be made before the Democratic Convention in Chicago between August 19 and 22. And there is the small matter that political donors have already made their contributions based on the commitment that there would be a Biden-Harris ticket for them to support. Switching financial backing to a campaign which features one, or the other, or neither is no trivial matter.
Ms Harris is an obvious choice should Mr Biden decide enough is enough, although the vice president has succeeded in making herself unpopular over her term of office. Her approval ratings have been no better than her boss.
The daughter of a Jamaican-American professor emeritus of economics at Stanford University, and an Indian biomedical scientist, she has the merit of experience and the disadvantage of hailing from California, which many middle Americans regard not only as a different country but a basket case of alternative and unsound political views.
While there are significant risks for the Democrats in Joe Biden digging in, there are difficulties with potential replacements. The path to Pennsylvania Avenue is littered with the political corpses of candidates who looked impressive on paper but fell in the white heat of campaign scrutiny.
The Democratic Party, and by association the leadership of the Western world, is caught between a Scylla and Charybdis. But decisions cannot long be delayed. Fairly, or unfairly, Americans do not want an elderly president. And in a choice between two old men, Donald Trump will win. Mr Biden’s performance at the Nato conference may be decisive.
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