PARIS (AP) — French president Emmanuel Macron is warning voters against choosing the far right or far left, claiming their divisive policies increase the risk of political “conflict and civil wars” ahead of Sunday’s first round of crucial parliamentary elections.
Macron said that both the far-right National Rally and the far-left France Unbowed offer poor answers to “real problems” because they “respond in some way by increasing conflict and civil war.” He spoke in an interview with the French podcast “Generation Do It Yourself,” released on Monday.
Macron so-called early elections following the defeat of his centrist alliance in the European Union elections earlier this month. Voters will choose lawmakers for the National Assembly in two rounds on June 30 and July 7.
“When you are fed up with everything, when everyday life is hard, you can be tempted by extremes that have quicker solutions. But the solution will never lie in rejecting others,” Macron said.
He alleged that the policy of the National Rally detailed by the party’s president, Jordan Bardella Monday would “lead to a civil war” and “be an impoverishment program, because it costs several thousand euros in hidden taxes every day and makes it impossible to pay pensions and pay workers properly.”
The far-left party France Unbowed is encouraging tensions between communities for electoral purposes, he claimed, arguing that it also means “civil war” because it “reduces people to their religious or ethnic group.”
Polls show the outcome of the early elections remains uncertain amid a complex voting system and potential alliances. Macron is targeting both the National Rally and the New Popular Front, a coalition from extreme to center-left parties, including France Unbowed.
