One month after the municipal elections, a new electoral marathon begins in France: in May 2027, the Élysée Palace will have a new occupant. Who will succeed Emmanuel Macron? In this uncertain race to the presidency where candidates are jostling in great disorder, the foreign press does not hide its concern about the political whirlwind that lies ahead. “The municipal elections have kicked off a long-term electoral campaign,” writes Stefano Cingolani in Il Foglio. “In France as well as in Italy, the collapse of the two pillars of traditional political life has shaken the entire political landscape.”
To the extent that we are increasingly lost every day, laments John Lichfield in The Local. “The new political map is even more bewildering and dangerous than before. And it will shape the contours of the French presidential election, the most crucial since World War II,” he insists. According to the British journalist, the blurred boundaries between right, left, and center, and the porous nature between certain blocs make it difficult to apply a traditional framework. “To quote Paul Ricœur, France is going through ‘a crisis of memory and hope,’ just like Europe, which ‘no longer knows what it has been or really what it wants to be,'” adds Stefano Cingolani.
After ten years of Macronism, the country “seems to increasingly divide into four (if not more) irreconcilable and well-defined parts,” between traditional left and right, the National Rally (RN), and La France Insoumise (LFI), explains Le Temps. In these conditions, it is difficult to “find a parliamentary majority” and therefore to govern.
The solution to avoid this visible paralysis? An early resignation of Emmanuel Macron. This is what The Economist, known for its liberal stance, suggests from the United Kingdom. “The first hundred days of a new leader set the tone for the rest of their term. Not in France, unfortunately,” where the electoral calendar prevents any significant action before October, five months after the election, laments the British weekly, which believes in a slightly shortened term for the lasting transformation of the Republic.
If the argument may surprise coming from a publication that supports the president, it reflects a general concern in the foreign press regarding the possibility of the National Rally coming to power. In The Guardian, Paul Taylor explains how, twelve months before the election, Emmanuel Macron himself and other European leaders anticipate a possible victory for the RN.
“Prevented from running for re-election after two terms, the president was the first to guard against the risk of seeing the Eurosceptic RN conquer the Élysée. As a precaution, he began to appoint his loyalists to prominent positions,” the article mentions. Meanwhile, France’s European partners are trying to accelerate negotiations on nuclear deterrence and the next EU budget.
However, “the victory of the RN is not inevitable,” tempers Observador from Portugal and Die Zeit from Germany, which regret the fatalism in Berlin surrounding the French presidency to come. In Hungary, Viktor Orban’s defeat on April 12 unsettles the belief that “illiberal parties were not only destined to take power but to keep it forever, with the support of the ‘real’ people,” as Anne Applebaum rejoices in The Atlantic.
Despite celebrations in Europe after Hungary’s election, Il Foglio warns of another threat the EU now faces — interference operations within democracies on the Old Continent. How the French presidential election will escape this remains unclear.
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Context: – This article discusses the implications and concerns surrounding the upcoming presidential election in France in 2027, following the municipal elections. It highlights the political landscape, concerns about potential outcomes, and the impact on European politics.
Fact Check: – No real-time fact-checking required.
