Visit our website:
http://www.france24.com
Like us on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/FRANCE24.English
Follow us on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/France24_en
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Well now we can bring in Clovis Casali from the National Rally headquarters.
00:06Clovis, the party then apparently just falling short of an absolute majority,
00:11we're not quite sure maybe they will make it significant gains nonetheless. What's the mood there?
00:20Well the heavyweights of the party including Marine Le Pen, Jordan Bardella will be coming
00:25here at the headquarters later this morning for a special meeting. Of course they'll be
00:30carefully looking at results, seeing what to do in which constituency here in France, seeing if
00:37they are really going to get into power and it does seem very likely they are at the gates of power.
00:44It seems they will get a strong majority, maybe not an outright majority, but a majority of seats
00:50in Parliament and then it will be all about alliances. They finished first in many constituencies,
00:58they've already got around 40 MPs elected straight away in the first round of the
01:04parliamentary elections, including their historic leader Marine Le Pen. Marine Le Pen
01:10in the Pas-de-Calais area in northern France, who said in her victory speech that the centrist
01:18bloc of Emmanuel Macron, of President Macron, has disappeared following these results. It's the end
01:24of Macron for her and she's calling for national unity. She's calling basically for the French
01:30people to turn up in big numbers on Sunday in order to give the national rally, the French
01:37far-right party, an outright majority to make sure that the French far-right is the dominant force,
01:44gets Jordan Bardella elected as Prime Minister and for her party to be able to pass laws
01:52freely in Parliament. Of course, we'll have to see what result they get on Sunday, but that's the
01:57idea for the national rally. Call for national unity behind them, as they describe
02:04themselves as the only real patriots in France. Right, Clovis, and as you mentioned, they're
02:10hoping to get a majority, but Jordan Bardella has said that he would not want to govern if the
02:16national rally doesn't make the needed amount of seats for that majority. What can we expect
02:24then to happen? Well, that's where it does get a bit technical. Remember, Eric Ciotti, the
02:33president of the mainstream, if you will, conservative party Les Républicains, decided to form an
02:39alliance during the campaign with the national rally. But not all of the LR Les Républicains MPs
02:46or candidates decided to join him in that enterprise. But what will they do now? If some
02:54get elected from this conservative party Les Républicains, will they decide in Parliament
02:58to join Jordan Bardella? Will they decide to join forces and therefore bring in numbers that
03:06would help the national rally, the French far right, get an outright majority in Parliament?
03:12Those Les Républicains seem to be the only potential allies for the French far right, because
03:19take the left wing, they won't join the far right. The left-wing parties, France Unbowed,
03:25the Socialists, the Greens, the Communists, the New Popular Front, in other words, have already said
03:30no way, we will never join the national rally, of course. Furthermore, they are deciding in the
03:37three-way run-offs you were mentioning, to call for any candidate who is standing against the
03:43national rally. No vote should go to the national rally. And that's actually the same message
03:48sent yesterday by Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, no vote should go to the national rally. In other
03:55words, this Republican front that's been happening for years here in France has been revived in some
04:01ways. In other words, parties trying to prevent the national rally, the French far right, from
04:06getting into government. All right, Clovis Casale, thank you very much for that update from national
04:12rally headquarters.