Populist leader Marine Le Pen said that she is preparing for the possibility of an early presidential election in France as Emmanuel Macron looks to be running out of options to effectively govern the nation.
On the back of the installation of the fourth prime minister so far this year, National Rally chief Marine Le Pen told Le Parisien that she has begun to “prepare for an early presidential election”.
She said that preparations are being made “as a precaution, given the fragility of Emmanuel Macron, the few institutional levers he has left”.
The president, Le Pen said, has “lost control everywhere” and that for “Emmanuel Macron, it’s over or almost.”
While President Macron has insisted that he intends on finishing out his second term in office, which will finish in 2027, Le Pen noted that there potential factors that could see him reconsider, such as international creditors taking actions over the growing debt crisis in the country.
Le Pen, who has ran for president three times before, is currently leading the race to replace Macron by a comfortable margin.
However, the populist leader faces some potential challenges, including a pending legal case against her and other National Rally party figures over alleged misappropriation of EU funds.
The case, which is set to wrap in March, could potentially see Le Pen banned from seeking national office for five years, which would effectively end her political aspirations of leading France.
Even if she overcomes the legal hurdle, it will still likely be an uphill battle to actually take control of the Élysée Palace, given France’s peculiar voting system, which was intentionally designed to entrench the power of establishment parties.
Under the current system, there are two rounds of voting, with many candidates entering into the first round and only the strongest being sent to the second and final round of voting.
The system often allows establishment parties to form unnatural alliances to keep outsider parties from winning, as was the case in 2002 when the left and the right rallied behind Jaques Chirac to prevent Jean-Marie Le Pen, Le Pen’s father and founder of the party, from taking power.
However, with growing dissatisfaction with the establishment, there is growing support for potential constitutional reforms, with a survey this week finding that a majority (56 per cent) of the French people would support ending the Fifth Republic — which began in 1958 — and establish a Sixth Republic. The same poll found that 75 per cent have a negative opinion of President Macron.
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