French Parties Hold Debate Amid Macron’s Warning

France’s three main political parties were fully set for a head-to-head for key TV debate ahead of election.

This is coming against the backdrop of President Emmanuel Macron’s warning of “civil war”, noting that the parties attempt could trigger a civil war.

As the various parties prepares for the debate on Tuesday night ahead of Sunday's first round of voting in the parliamentary elections, the debate will pitch Prime Minister Gabriel Attal of Macron’s centrist Renaissance party against RN President Jordan Bardella and Manuel Bompard of France Unbowed, representing a left-wing alliance that is also besting Macron’s side in the polls.

At just 28, Jordan Bardella could become the first far-right prime minister in France’s modern history, though he has said he will only take the job if the RN wins an absolute majority in parliament.

Regardless of the result, Macron has vowed to stay on as president until the end of his second term in 2027.

He has been criticised from all sides for his decision to call the snap election after his party received a drubbing in a European vote earlier this month.

An Ifop poll has the RN with 36 per cent support, the left-wing New Popular Front with 29.5 per cent and Macron’s camp with 20.5 per cent, leading the unpopular president’s allies to beg him to step back from the campaign.

But Macron weighed in on Monday evening to warn that the programmes of the two “extremes” could spark a “civil war”, accusing both the RN and France Unbowed of sowing tensions and division.

RN leader Marine Le Pen said Macron’s argument was “weak” and showed “he thinks he’s lost this election”.

Patrick Kanner, head of the centre-left Socialists in the Senate, said his remarks showed France is “faced with someone who no longer controls anything.”

Some suggested that Tuesday’s TV debate was unlikely to change the balance between the three blocs.

“What debate? People have already chosen, it’s already crystallised,” a top member of Macron’s team, who asked not to be named, said.

Some 200 socialist, environmentalist and centrist figures signed an open letter against the far-right in Le Monde newspaper, calling on all parties to unite against the RN in the second-round run-off on July 7.

Meanwhile, Bardella and Attal both requested that the left-wing slot in Tuesday’s debate be taken by France Unbowed founder Jean-Luc Melenchon rather than Bompard.