Macron asks Attal to stay on temporarilyEmmanuel Macron has asked Gabriel Attal to stay on as prime minister, for the time being.ShareUpdated at 06.27 EDTKey eventsShow key events onlyPlease turn on JavaScript to use this featureMarine Le Pen thanks voters and says victory inevitableThe far right National Rally’s Marine Le Pen has thanked voters who supported her group.“All my thanks to the ten million voters who made the RN the first party in terms of number of votes and number of deputies,” she wrote.“The progress in two years is incredible and makes our short-term victory inevitable. It will invite us to also take stock of what can undoubtedly be improved in the future,” she added.Tous mes remerciements aux dix millions d’électeurs qui ont fait du RN, le premier parti en nombre de voix et en nombre de députés !La progression en deux ans est incroyable et rend notre victoire à court terme inévitable. Elle va nous inviter à faire aussi le bilan de ce qui…— Marine Le Pen (@MLP_officiel) July 8, 2024

ShareSantiago Abascal, leader of Spain’s far right Vox, has congratulated the French National Rally on its “spectacular electoral progress.””Queremos felicitar a @MLP_officiel y a @RNational_off por su espectacular avance electoral en Francia” 👏👏👏🇫🇷 “También han logrado retratar juntos a la ultraizquierda islamista y antisemita con el centro globalista y la derechita progre”. 🔵 En España, el PP también tendrá… pic.twitter.com/vCbWupCTlW— VOX 🇪🇸 (@vox_es) July 8, 2024

ShareMarine Le Pen has been defeated by the left, but who will govern France?Our panel responds.ShareAngela GiuffridaItalian opposition parties have celebrated the surprise outcome of the French elections, a result that is expected to widen the friction among the far-right allies in Giorgia Meloni’s government which had been counting on a triumph by Marine Le Pen’s National Rally.Elly Schlein, leader of the centre-left Democratic party, said the “extraordinary” leftwing victory proved that “the right can be beaten”.Giuseppe Conte, who leads the Five Star Movement, said: “The great participation of the French people has rewarded the popular and progressive proposal of those who never had any doubt about peace, the defence of social rights and the protection of the most fragile.”Meloni, who last week congratulated the National Rally for its performance in the first round of the election, has yet to comment publicly, but sources within her Brothers of Italy party told Corriere della Sera that Le Pen’s defeat demonstrated that the Italian government was “the only stable one in Europe”.Le Pen’s loss was also a setback for her close ally Matteo Salvini, the Italian deputy prime minister who announced on Monday that his League party had joined Patriots for Europe in the European parliament, the new grouping formed by the Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orbán. Until now, the League had been part of the Identity and Democracy group alongside the National Rally, which has also joined Orbán’s group.“After a long period of work, the big group of patriots, which will be decisive to change the future of Europe, comes to life in Brussels today,” Salvini said on social media.ShareGerman chancellor ‘relieved’ by French election outcomeOlaf Scholz, the German chancellor, has said that he is relieved by the French election results, Reuters reported.“It would have been a major challenge if the French president had had to enter into a coalition with a right-wing populist party,” Scholz said.“This has now been averted and we now hope that the president, but also the elected representatives, will succeed in constructively forming a government.”ShareUpdated at 07.12 EDTYonathan Arfi, president of the umbrella group representing French Jewish organisations, the Crif, has reiterated his position that the hard left France Unbowed (LFI) should not form part of a future government.It is, he wrote, “the moment of truth for the republican left: no coalition is possible with those who have led an anti-Semitic campaign for months!” he wrote.Many members of French Jewish communities, along with others across the political spectrum, have raised concerns about comments from leading members of France Unbowed which they described as anti-Semitic. Ahead of the election, the Crif published a list of quotes from the party’s leadership which it deemed problematic.France Unbowed has repeatedly denied allegations that it is promoting anti-Semitism.LFI n’a pas sa place au gouvernement !Le RN a reconnu sa défaite. Il est urgent que Jean-Luc Melenchon comprenne que, NFP ou pas, il n’a pas de majorité non plus !Un seul camp a gagné, celui des Français qui ne voulaient ni du RN ni de LFI. Les Français ont refusé le diktat…— Yonathan Arfi (@Yonathan_Arfi) July 8, 2024ShareUpdated at 06.26 EDTMacron asks Attal to stay on temporarilyEmmanuel Macron has asked Gabriel Attal to stay on as prime minister, for the time being.ShareUpdated at 06.27 EDTKate ConnollyWith a view to Germany’s upcoming elections in September in three eastern states where the far-right populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) are leading in the polls, the main take away in Germany from the drama in neighbouring France is not to experiment with trying to push the electorate in a certain direction, as it could badly backfire and risks both national and European security as well as voters’ sanity, leaving the centre ground in tatters.The opposition conservative Christian Democrats’ (CDU) foreign policy expert Armin Laschet said the election result presents an opportunity for the pro-European majority.“Neither the right-wing extremists around Ms. Le Pen nor the anti-Semitic and anti-German left-wing radicals around Mélenchon have won, but there is a chance for a democratic and pro-European majority,” he said.Looking ahead to the state elections in Saxony, Thuringia and Brandenburg next month, he added:
This is also a lesson for us in the East German state elections. The fight for democracy and Europe is worthwhile.
Kevin Kühnert, general secretary of the SPD, also adopted a more optimistic tone, stating that the success of the left-wing electoral alliance should be celebrated.“It’s a weight off many people’s hearts – including mine,” he said on German breakfast TV this morning.The election results contained two messages, he said:
The majority of French people do not want to be governed by right-wing radicals. But the majority of French people also thought that the last few years under Macron had not offered opportunities for social justice.
ShareKate ConnollyReaction in Germany amongst mainstream parties towards the election result in France has been fairly sombre, despite some feeling consoled that the outcome was not as bad as they had feared.Foreign policy makers in the three-way coalition of Olaf Scholz are focussing their concern on the emboldened fringes.Michael Roth, of Scholz’s Social Democrats (SPD), who is the chair of the Bundestag’s foreign affairs committee, has said there’s no reason to breathe a sigh of relief.“The march of right-wing nationalists and right-wing extremists has been stopped,” he said in an interview.“This is a great achievement of the French. But it is still far too early to give the all-clear because the nationalist populists from the right and left are stronger than ever. The middle is weaker than ever. Emmanuel Macron has failed miserably with this.”Roth said Macron’s experiment had intended to seize control from the left and right and bring it back to the centre, but had ended up doing the opposite.“In fact, Macron has shredded the political centre,” he said.ShareBruno Le Maire, the outgoing economy minister, has published a lengthy post welcoming the election loss of the far right but also warning of several risks ahead.“The most immediate risk is a financial crisis and France’s economic decline,” he said.“The second risk is an ideological fracture of the nation,” he added.Le Maire called for like-minded groups to come together calling for forces that believe in the market economy, recovery of public finances, the energy transition and European project to disengage from partisan interests.Les Français sont allés massivement aux urnes le 7 juillet. Ils ont dit non à l’arrivée du Rassemblement national au pouvoir. C’est une excellente nouvelle. La France reste la France, hostile à toute discrimination et à toute distinction entre les citoyens.Je veux adresser à…— Bruno Le Maire (@BrunoLeMaire) July 8, 2024

ShareFrench football players have expressed their relief at the election’s outcome.“Victory of the people,” wrote Aurélien Tchouaméni.“Congratulations to all the French people who mobilised so that this beautiful country that is France does not find itself governed by the extreme right,” said Jules Kounde.La victoire du Peuple 🙏🏾🇫🇷— Tchouameni Aurélien (@atchouameni) July 7, 2024

Le soulagement est à la hauteur de l’inquiétude de ces dernières semaines, il est immense.Félicitations à tous les Français qui se sont mobilisés pour que ce beau pays qu’est la France ne se retrouve pas gouverné par l’extrême droite. 🙏🏾🇫🇷— Jules Kounde (@jkeey4) July 7, 2024

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