French President Emmanuel Macron’s party and its centrist allies appear to be leading the way in parliamentary elections scheduled for mid-June in France, with the official first-round election campaign kicking off yesterday amid price-hike tensions.
Two weeks before the June 12 elections, Macron’s party is in close competition with the left-wing alliance led by Jean-Luc Mélenchon, with far-right Marine Le Pen in third place in polls. This unprecedented battle between the three blocs that have supplanted the traditional parties of right and left that have dominated France’s political life for decades seems tense at a time when the French are struggling with the cost of living in light of accelerating inflation and negative economic growth.
For her part, new Prime Minister Elisabeth Bourne, herself a first-time nominee, laid out a new government roadmap that includes three “urgent” issues: purchasing power, health and climate.
As with European economies, economic activity in France, which has yet to recover from the Covid shock, is facing rising prices caused by the conflict in Ukraine. In April, an annual inflation rate of about 5% was recorded. Right-wing opposition spokesman Jean-Christophe Lagarde said on Friday that “the question of legislative elections is to see if the French give Emmanuel Macron another absolute majority or force him into the debate…”
