France at a crossroads: Is the far right on the verge of power?

Charles de Gaulle famously complained that governing a country with 246 kinds of cheese was all but impossible. Less known is what De Gaulle said just before that: “Only peril can bring the French together”. President Emmanuel Macron had peril on his mind when he stunned his compatriots by calling a snap national election after the far right routed his pro-European party in Sunday’s European elections. Macron is betting that faced with peril – the risk of being governed by the most extreme-right party since the Nazi-era Vichy government – French voters might put their grievances aside and unite against what he sees as a common threat. But will they? Douglas Herbert puts the question to Sandro Gozi, a French MEP from the centrist Renew Europe group in the European Parliament, and Thierry Mariani, a French MEP from the right-wing Identity and Democracy group, which includes Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally.



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