(10 Jun 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Paris, France – 10 June 2024
1. Wide of Bastille square with newsstand
2. Various of people exiting metro station, walking on streets
3. Wide of newsstand
4. Mid of ‘Le Parisien’ newspaper reading (French) ‘The bolt from the blue’
5. Mid of ‘Les Echos’ newspaper reading (French) ‘The gamble’
6. Mid of ‘Le Figaro’ newspaper reading (French) ‘the shock, after the EU elections, the dissolution’
7. SOUNDBITE (French) Cyril Jeancler, vox pop:
"I don’t understand the political move. France has strong institutions of the Fifth Republic, he should have trusted the institutions. From the beginning to the end, his five-years terms are disturbing for the French society."
8. Mid of ‘Liberation’ newspaper reading (French) ‘The extreme bet’
9. SOUNDBITE (French) Philippe Bloch, vox pop:
"The dissolution of the Assembly seems like a very dangerous game to me. Trying to gather the French in a very complicated context for the President’s party is going to expose Macron with the risk of the majority tipping over so I don’t think it’s a good thing."
10. Mid of street
11. SOUNDBITE (French) Nicolas Desurmont, vox pop:
"The political events from yesterday are unusual. It is a strong signal sent to the government. There are many crises, social, environmental, entrepreneurial and these votes reflect a certain social unrest but I think that calling for snap elections will allow to give a new start and I trust the French to find a solution for the years to come. Yesterday night I heard some protests and I can feel the French people expressing their discontent, worried about the rise of the extremes."
12. Wide of crossroad
13. Close of people on bicycles
STORYLINE:
President Emmanuel Macron dissolved the lower house of France’s parliament in a surprise announcement sending voters back to the polls in the coming weeks to choose lawmakers, after his party was handed a humbling defeat by the far-right in the European elections Sunday.
The legislative elections will take place in two rounds on June 30 and July 7.
Parisians on Monday were divided on the move, with some suggesting it would have a destabilising and dangerous effect, and others saying they trusted the French to make the right decision and find a solution to the country’s political woes.
The announcement came after the first projected results from France put the far-right National Rally party well ahead in the European Union’s parliamentary elections, handing a chastening loss to Macron’s pro-European centrists, according to French opinion poll institutes.
Marine Le Pen’s anti-immigration, nationalist party was estimated to get around 31%-32% of the votes, a historic result more than double the share of Macron’s Renaissance party, which was projected to reach around 15%.
Macron himself wasn’t a candidate in the EU elections and his term as president still runs for three more years.
He said the decision was “serious” but showed his “confidence in our democracy, in letting the sovereign people have their say.”
In latest legislative elections in 2022, Macron’s centrist party won the most seats but lost its majority at the National Assembly, forcing lawmakers into political maneuvering to pass bills.
With Sunday’s decision, he is taking a big risk with a move that could backfire and increase the chances of Le Pen to eventually take power.
The EU elections results were a hard blow for Macron, who has been advocating for Europe-wide efforts to defend Ukraine and the need for the EU to boost its own defenses and industry.
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