Macron s Gamble on Stopping Le Pen Now Risks Ushering Her to Power – WSJ

PARIS President Emmanuel Macron has always aspired to become one of the great men of history, saving Europe from the fires of populism and setting its economy on course to compete with the U.S. and China.

The question now looming over Macron is whether he will go down in history as the man who ushered Marine Le Pen and her far-right party to the threshold of power in France.

Macron s decision to call snap elections broadsided France and shocked the world. It was also vintage Macron: bold, risky and timed to catch his opponents off guard. Macron was operating under the assumption that he and his candidates for the National Assembly would benefit from the element of surprise, according to his aides. Leftist parties would have no time to form alliances crucial for making it past the first round of voting on June 30. That, in turn, would compel many of their voters to rally behind Macron s pro-business party in the July 7 runoff as they had in Macron s previous showdowns with Le Pen.

Those assumptions are now unraveling. A range of left-leaning parties have managed to quickly stitch together a coalition that will go toe to toe with Macron s and Le Pen s forces. Macron s own party, meanwhile, is in disarray, with shellshocked lawmakers struggling to rally around a leader who they say acted unilaterally, without consulting them, much as he has since taking office in 2017.

Polls taken this week show Le Pen s forces qualifying for runoffs and finishing with up to 270 seats. Such a haul would be just shy of a majority in the 577-seat National Assembly, but about triple the number of seats that Le Pen won in 2022. National Rally would become the biggest party in the lower chamber, and Le Pen would have a strong argument for picking the next prime minister.

via www.wsj.com

What is the French equivalent of schadenfreude? Is there one?