PARIS, June 12, (AP): French President Emmanuel Macron called Wednesday for moderate politicians from the left and the right to regroup to defeat the far right in general elections.
Macron, a pro-business centrist, said he wants "men and women of goodwill who were able to say ‘no’ to extremes to join together to be able to build a joint project” for the country.
A somber-looking Macron is addressing French voters for the first time since he called for a snap national election following a crushing defeat of his party by the far right in the European parliamentary vote.
Unlike in his recent national addresses in which Macron focused on Russia’s war in Ukraine and ways Europe should forge a common defense policy, independent of the United States and shore up trade protections against China, Macron stuck to France's internal issues favored by the surging right, including curbing immigration, fighting crime and Islamic separatism in France.
He said he decided to dissolve the National Assembly, France's lower house of parliament, because he could not ignore the new political reality after his pro-European party was handed a chastening defeat and garnered less than half the support of the National Rally with its star leader, Jordan Bardella.
His move Sunday triggered an early legislative election that will take place three weeks after the far-right National Rally party of Marine Le Pen triumphed at the election for the European Union Parliament.
Macron, who has three years left of his second presidential term, hopes voters will band together to contain the far right in national elections in a way they didn’t in European ones.