FLASH
Shkruar nga Anne-Elisabeth Moutet 
Challenge, enmity and suspicion reign between opponents, but also between so-called allies, forced by circumstances to enter into unnatural coalitions...
As some 500,000 leftists marched through French cities a few days ago, loudly shouting anti-fascist slogans, Russian Bolshevik leader Lenin's phrase had never seemed more appropriate: “There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where things happen that usually take decades."
Influenced by President Emmanuel Macron's decision last week to call snap elections at the end of the month after the far-right National Rally took over 1/3 of the vote in the European elections, French politics has currently entered a very chaotic state. .
Macron deliberately chose the shortest time frame compatible with the constitution. The first round of early elections will be held on June 30, while the runoff will be held on July 7. Challenge, enmity and suspicion reign between opponents, but also between so-called allies, forced by circumstances to enter into unnatural coalitions.
Parties that have just finished vying for voters in a proportional representation system now face the challenge of building alliances. The Left-Green Alliance, calling itself the New Popular Front, came together under the leadership of Jean-Luc Mélenchon's La France Insoumise (Unyielding France).
His campaign focused on Gaza, in an attempt to get votes from young people and forgotten suburbanites. His supporters waved more Palestinian flags than French ones (and many from former French colonies such as Algeria and Tunisia, with clear anti-French slogans), as some of the rallies turned violent.
Now, faced with an electoral process where local factors matter in every constituency, the typical Palestinian banners and scarves have disappeared. The NPF claims to be fighting "fascism at our doorstep". The party's official platform, published on Friday, is even more extremist.
It aims to suspend the treaties that the European Union has signed with Israel and taxes on everything. There will be "mileage taxes" on imported goods in proportion to the distance traveled, a restoration of wealth tax, a restriction on inheritance.
There will also be a lower retirement age, higher minimum wage and more benefits paid to everyone, but above all to immigrants who must be "properly welcomed". It is an ideal document to fight Marine Le Pen's National Rally.
The former socialist president François Hollande also intervened in this mess, who in 2017 was removed from the stage by his Minister of Economy, Emmanuel Macron. He recently announced that he was staying in his old Central France constituency of Corrèze (neighboring Jacques Chirac), and offered himself as a fighter against extremism and a moderator for the NPF's economic platform.
This was the occasion to remember that Hollande, for a long time, was best known in French politics for his influence in uniting opposing radical factions to win elections. On the other hand, the National Rally has started its campaign with great hopes.
But few polls give this party a majority in the National Assembly. It needs electoral alliances with the moderate right. The current president of Les Républicains (Republicans), the old party of Nicolas Sarkozy and Jacques Chirac, is southerner Eric Ciotti, who decided his party would sign a non-compete agreement with the National Rally.
According to the pact, the least good candidate at the end of the first round to withdraw in favor of the other. This led to calls for his removal from the leadership, and a decision to do so was subsequently overturned by a judge. Therefore there will be two competing Republican candidates in some constituencies.
At noon on Friday, large crowds gathered in the Place de la Nation, waving Palestinian flags, convinced they were on the verge of a takeover. Calls to avoid violence have so far been heeded. But with rising tensions, even a single spark is enough for France to be engulfed in chaos./ Pamphlet from "Daily Telegraph"
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