(1 Jul 2024)
RESTRICTIONS SUMMARY:
++SOUNDBITES SEPARATED BY BLACK FRAMES++
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Paris – 1 July 2024
++STARTS ON SOUNDBITE++
1. SOUNDBITE (English) Angela Charlton, Western Europe News Director:
++PART COVERED BY SHOTS 2 – 6++
"A far-right, anti-immigrant party has come out on top of France’s historic parliamentary elections. But this is only the first round. The decisive second round runoff is Sunday. Marine Le Pen’s National Rally is on track to have the most seats in the next French parliament. However, we’ll only find out Sunday if she has an absolute majority and can form a new government. So centrist President Emmanuel Macron will stay president for the next three years, but he will be very weakened both domestically and on the world stage and his decision to call these snap elections is looking like a massive political miscalculation. Many voters see Macron as out of touch with their concerns, particularly their economic concerns, and as part of a kind of arrogant Parisian elite. Marine Le Pen has tapped into that frustration, notably by blaming immigrants for many of France’s problems. Her party would scale back rights of people with immigrant backgrounds, and that has a lot of her rivals concerned. They see this as a threat to human rights and to France’s democratic ideals. This could have implications beyond France. If Macron has to share power with the far-right, that’s a system called ‘cohabitation’ in France, where you have the president and prime minister from opposing political camps and that could have implications such as the far-right prime minister might want to hold France’s support for Ukraine or derail Macron’s efforts to fight climate change or even erect new borders within Europe. A few scenarios are possible on Sunday. One is that the far-right gets an absolute majority, and then they get to name a prime minister in a situation called ‘cohabitation’ in France. Another is that no party has an absolute majority, but the far-right has the most seats in parliament. At that point, Macron could name a prime minister from the far-right National Rally, or they could have some kind of technocratic government where they try to come up with people to run the government, who are not part of any party. However, either situation is likely to lead to long legislative gridlock, and it will make it very hard for Macron or France to pass any new policy."
ASSOCIATED PRESS VIA AGENCY POOL (RTV)
Henin-Beaumont, France – 30 June 2024
2. Various of Marine Le Pen with crowd
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Le Touquet, France – 30 June 2024
3. Various of French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife, Brigitte Macron, at polling station
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Paris – 01 July 2024
4. Various French National Assembly exteriors
5. Various of French newspapers on day after polling
6. Wide of Arc de Triumph
STORYLINE:
The far-right National Rally leaped into a strong lead Sunday in France’s first round of legislative elections, polling agencies projected, bringing the party closer to being able to form a government in round two and dealing a major slap to centrist President Emmanuel Macron and his risky decision to call the surprise ballot.
The Associated Press Western Europe News Director Angela Charlton said Macron’s "decision to call these snap elections is looking like a massive political miscalculation."
French polling agencies’ projections put Macron’s grouping of centrist parties a distant third in the first-round ballot, behind both the National Rally and a new left-wing coalition of parties that joined forces to keep it from winning power.
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