Legislative: the wind of the millstone

This is unprecedented and symptomatic of the political crisis that the country is going through! Since 2002 and the coupling of the two ballots, voters have systematically validated their choice of presidential election in the legislative elections. But this logic of giving the newly elected head of state the means to govern has just come to an abrupt end: Sunday evening, the Nupes and Renaissance and their allies came out elbow-to-elbow…
Who will dare to speak of surprise about a result that we saw coming from quite a distance and to which Emmanuel Macron nevertheless seems to have reacted only at the last minute? Since his re-election against Marine Le Pen, the President of the Republic has capitalized on nothing. His international commitment? The soporific appointment of Elisabeth Borne at Matignon? Is the presentation of the new government polluted, it is true, by the Abad affair? All of this has only produced… “loquats”so much so that at the very end, as if panicked by the bad signals from the polls and no doubt under pressure from his own people, the President suddenly reappeared on the front line, finally resigning himself to campaigning…
From Cherbourg to Gaillac via Marseille, Emmanuel Macron spoke about the suffering hospital, the education entrusted to Pap Ndiaye or even about security, after the chaos at the Stade de France and the dramatic police control in Paris. To him the sovereign, while in a number of classic duettists between president and head of government, it fell to Élisabeth Borne to outline the next law on purchasing power, and to reassure the French – those on the left in particular – on the continuity of the commitments of the welfare state, “whatever it takes” who does not say his name…
This late boost did not allow the majority to avoid the electoral accident, nor to regain control of a campaign on which Jean-Luc Mélenchon has imposed its own tempo from the start.
A week before this first round of the legislative elections, the consultation of French people living abroad has moreover confirmed the talent of the Insoumis in chief, a political animal who, from his audacious appeal to be elected Prime Minister to the improbable formation of the Nupes, has become the main attraction of this lackluster electoral sequence.
Finally, as expected, the high level of abstention is the real black spot of this first electoral round: a new record has been set, which leaves no doubt about the breakdown of our democratic system and the urgency of reforming it.
By taking the paths of radicalism, Jean-Luc Mélenchon succeeded in crystallizing an electorate which had turned away from the ballot box, but he also cut himself off from all that the country has of moderate voters and who, until evidence to the contrary, will constitute the main pool of votes for the second round.
This is how, having completed a flawless run – except for the controversy over “the police kill” – the most difficult still remains to be accomplished for the boss of LFI and his allies at Nupes. And the future is no less uncertain for the presidential coalition which, on the evening of this first round, has no certainty of obtaining an absolute majority. It is as if having lost all faith in politics, the French had chosen not to choose…