Snap legislative elections: Macron gave far right ‘what they’re been asking for’
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00:00 Thomas, from the Socialist Party, I mentioned at the start, with a new seat, but listening to that news,
00:05 you know, we felt in this room that it was surprising to suddenly call that. Tell me what
00:12 you think the factors at play are here, what's causing so many people, even in bigger numbers,
00:17 at the European elections to go for the far right? Just to clarify one thing, sir, I'm not a member
00:24 of the Socialist Party, I'm a member of Place Publique, which is the party, the coalition, just to be
00:30 clear. The party of Raphael Glucksmann within the... Yes, indeed. So, I mean, European elections are
00:37 about Europe, and what Macron has been doing for several months is to nationalise that election,
00:43 and he's just done that again, in a way that we'll see what happens, but maybe in the future we'll
00:48 see that it was a bit reckless, to say the least. Emmanuel Macron has been making gift to the far
00:55 right, at least since December, since the migration law, that he did pass with the support of the
00:59 Assemblée Nationale, and just a few minutes ago he gave to the Assemblée Nationale what they've
01:04 been asking for, which is a snap election. So that's, I mean, he's the president, he was elected,
01:11 that's his choice, and now we're facing a responsibility both in France and in Europe,
01:15 which is to make sure that the far right does not come back in power. I mean, they were kicked out
01:20 of power all over Europe 80 years ago, they should never be coming back, and we've been seeing the
01:25 centrists making alliances with them time and again, in Flanders, in Sweden, in Finland, and
01:31 in the Netherlands, and I mean, more than ever, now is the time to fight the far right night and day,
01:38 every day of the week, to kick them out of power. And yet the Resemblable Nationale, the national
01:44 rally, say, we don't use the F-word, fascist, we've kicked out the AfD, the Alternative für
01:49 Deutschland, from the Identity and Democracy, they call themselves a party representing the people,
01:55 they talk about migration, but they're trying to clearly shift themselves away of the father
02:00 of Marine Le Pen and the family legacy that they clearly have. Sure, I mean, the far right have had
02:08 a capacity to deceive people for a very long time. I mean, in political science, because I'm a
02:13 researcher, first and foremost, we call that a catch-all party. They're going to say whatever
02:17 they want, and then they're going to do something else. I mean, Marine Le Pen, a few years ago,
02:22 wanted to leave the Eurozone, now she wants to stay in it. I think it was two months ago,
02:26 Marine Le Pen wanted to leave the European energy market, Jean-Denis Bardelat changed his mind,
02:32 I mean, those are major things, and they're just, you know, changing their mind, you know,
02:36 on a whim, depending on the opinion poll. So obviously, when you have a party that is dishonest,
02:41 and that, you know, has the capacity to deceive people, yeah, I mean, it's easier to fool a few
02:49 electors, of which, you know, they, I mean, they care very little about them. But those electors,
02:54 of the Assemblée nationale, a lot of them are angry. There are good reasons to be angry,
03:00 especially today. And we, social democrats, as we did in the past, need to be able to come up
03:07 with a project. We need to be able to listen to the people, and to be the alternative to
03:12 the far right, like we were decades ago, and like we are today.