Tensions flare between far right, Macron camp ahead of France vote

AFP | Paris

The Daily Tribune - www.newsofbahrain.com

Tensions soared yesterday between supporters of Emmanuel Macron and the French far-right after its longtime leader Marine Le Pen cast doubt on the president’s ability to act as head of the armed forces after legislative elections.

The far-right National Rally (RN) is tipped to win the election, potentially giving Le Pen’s party the post of prime minister for the first time in its history in a tense “cohabitation” with centrist Macron. Three days before the first round of the vote on June 30, Macron’s centrist alliance is battling to make up ground. But polls suggest it will come third behind the RN and the New Popular Front (NFP) leftwing coalition. The party chief of the RN, Jordan Bardella, 28, would have a chance to lead a government as prime minister.

But he has insisted he will only do this if it wins an absolute majority of the 577 seats in the National Assembly. Friends and foes of Macron alike are still scratching their heads over why the president called a poll in the aftermath of its heavy defeat in this month’s EU elections. Le Pen told the Telegramme daily that the president’s title as commander-in-chief of the armed forces was “honorific, because it’s the prime minister who holds the purse strings”.

Therefore, “on Ukraine, the president will not be able to send troops”, she added, undermining Macron’s warning to Moscow that France would keep all options on the table to thwart Russia’s invasion of its neighbour.