5/19/2023 0 Comments France lockdownAs a consequence, election results were muddled and hard to interpret. Older voters, who are more vulnerable to the virus, chose to stay home, and the abstention rate reached a record 55.36%, 20 points higher than in the previous municipal election in 2014. Meanwhile, however, the public’s threat perception increased exponentially. As France transitioned from stage 2 to stage 3 of the pandemic, it decreed the closure of all “non-essential public places,” but Prime Minister Édouard Philippe reiterated that the following day’s municipal elections would proceed “as planned.” Citizens were urged to bring their own pens, maintain a one-meter distance from other voters, and wear masks so long as they remained recognizable. Despite governmental restrictions on mass gatherings, hundreds of Gilets jaunes took to the streets for the 70th consecutive Saturday, leading to violence and arrests. Over the next two days, preparations for the election continued as though the number of COVID-19 infections in France was not doubling every four days. Earlier that day, when rumors had begun to circulate that the elections might be postponed, the head of the center-right party Les Républicains, Christian Jacob, denounced the idea as a “ coup d’état” conjured by the president to protect his party from a “debacle” at the polls. ![]() Party leaders across the political spectrum acquiesced. ![]() Three days before the first round, scheduled for Sunday March 15 - as COVID-19 was already claiming lives in France - President Macron announced school closures, but confirmed that the municipal elections would nonetheless take place. In mid-February, all eyes were fixed on the precipitous withdrawal from the race of the LREM candidate for mayor of Paris, a major development at the time that now looks inconsequential. Several races, including over control of Socialist-led Paris, attracted significant attention. Hence the importance of this year’s municipal elections, which presented an opportunity for a referendum on Macron two years before the next presidential election, and a test of his viability outside the capital. Macron’s attempt to reform the pension system also faced an angry opposition, triggering month-long strikes that paralyzed Paris. Yet French politics have remained atomized: Not only is the opposition to Macron fragmented, but the president’s party maintains a weak hold on power (recent opinion polls put the president’s popularity at 33%).Ī year and a half into his mandate, the Gilets jaunes, a leaderless protest movement against social and fiscal injustices, underlined the fundamental disconnect between Macron’s party and “ peripheral France” - the struggling lower and middle class beyond the beltways that surround large cities like Paris or Lyon. ![]() This has led to somewhat dissonant ideologies among members, and more than 15 MPs have left the party since the election. Politics before the warĪfter Macron was elected president in 2017 on the ashes of the French party system, he built LREM from scratch and took risks by promoting political newcomers. Peacetime politics have been replaced by angry debate on how to conduct the war against COVID-19. The political battlefield has shifted towards public health policy, crisis management, and executive leadership. Research and Events Intern - Center on the United States and Europe, Brookings Foreign Policyīut the health crisis that has engulfed our societies, including France, appears to be turning politics-as-usual upside down, rendering the need for democratic consultation moot, at least for now.
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