Far-right, nationalist parties made strong gains in the European parliamentary elections, with the far-right Rassemblement national topping the French poll and wiping out the opposition. Following the result, Centrist Hervé Morin warned yesterday that France would stumble into chaos under an extreme-right government. “We are edging closer to chaos, and by that I mean the [far-right] Rassemblement national,” Mr Morin, a former defence minister and the head of an association of French regions, told France Info radio. We must find – and then pave – a third way between [centrist President] Emmanuel Macron and the Rassemblement national,” he continued.
Mrs Le Pen’s ultra-conservative, anti-Brussels RN won the May 26 election with 23.3 percent of the French vote, while the ruling La République en Marche (REM) party came second with 22.4 percent.
But their success dealt a major blow to France’s mainstream centre-right bloc, which was left shattered and deeply humiliated after a dismal performance in polls.
The traditional right-wing Les Républicains (LR) party came in fourth place behind the RN, the REM and the Greens in the poll, scoring just 8.48 percent in the EU vote – its lowest ever.
The party’s hardline leader Laurent Wauquiez, a polarising conservative who embraced policies seen as being too close to those of the far-right, has been widely blamed for ostracising centre-right voters and was forced to quit following the catastrophic EU result.
Across Europe, the centre-right has lost support as voters have drifted towards fringe parties such as the RN.
Newly elected RN MEP Jordan Bardella, the rising star of the French far-right, said later on Wednesday that the LR party is “dead”.
“The reality is that the Republicans are dead. The LR party is being hijacked by the centrists,” Mr Bardella told Radio Classique, citing Mr Macron’s efforts to persuade right-wingers to join his centrist camp.
The LR’s woes also set the scene for another potential face-off between Mr Macron and Mrs Le Pen in the 2022 presidential election.
Mrs Le Pen, who exploited growing populist sentiment across Europe to drum up support ahead of the EU vote, now hopes to build a sovereign alliance with other nationalist parties who want to overhaul the bloc from within and strip Brussels of its main powers.
But while she has succeeded in establishing herself as the number one opponent to Mr Macron back home, she now faces the tricky task of winning over other EU leaders, most of whom do not want to be associated with a movement still seen as bigoted and extremist by a majority of voters.
Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party has refused to join any parliamentary alliance with Mrs Le Pen’s RN, as has Hungary’s ruling far-right Fidesz party.