Macron urges solid parliament majority amid 'troubled times'

Speaking as he departed from Paris to visit French troops dispatched to Romania in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Macron said "the months ahead will be difficult".

But he called for people to back him in the name of "the higher national interest" and "common sense".

Macron's visit this week to Romania and neighbouring Moldova comes just ahead of the second round of crucial parliamentary elections in which his majority is at risk.

"Emmanuel Macron has planned a trip abroad for three days... after anaesthetising the campaign by refusing any debate, he saw the second round as a done deal," Jean-Luc Mélenchon, leader of the left-wing Nupes alliance, told Le Parisien daily.

Déclaration avant de rejoindre nos militaires déployés en Roumanie. https://t.co/NjQRyPayyt

— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) June 14, 2022

 

As the head of state, Macron is technically not supposed to campaign in the parliamentary elections, leaving that up to his Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne. 

In the first round of voting on Sunday, his Ensemble (Together) alliance of centrist parties finished neck-and-neck with the leftist alliance Nupes.

Projections suggest voters could hand Ensemble 255-295 seats in the second round -- uncomfortably low compared with the threshold for an absolute majority of 289.

France deployed 500 troops to Romania following Russia's invasion of neighbouring Ukraine.

Speaking to around 200 French soldiers at a NATO base in Romania on Tuesday, Macron said they were "the pride of France" and hailed them for the "fundamental" commitment to protect eastern European countries threatened by Russia.

On Wednesday, Macron is due to meet Romanian President Klaus Iohannis before visiting Moldova, where fears of a spillover from the Ukraine conflict have spiked after incidents in the pro-Moscow breakaway region of Transnistria.

There have been press reports -- so far unconfirmed -- that Macron could make his first visit to Ukrainian capital Kyiv since the assault began in February, alongside German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi.

But "people (in France) are really worried about petrol, purchasing power, not about him going to visit French soldiers abroad," one anonymous parliamentary candidate for Ensemble complained to Le Parisien.

Macron acknowledged on Tuesday "disorder in our everyday lives," telling voters "you're already paying more for your gas, your petrol, your groceries, and the months ahead will be difficult."

"In these troubled times, the choice you have to make this Sunday is more crucial than ever," he added, calling both on people who had voted for other candidates and non-voters to rally behind him.

While the campaign has been dominated by inflation and other economic impacts of the Ukraine war, the left is also trying to make it a referendum on Macron's plans to raise the minimum retirement age to 65 and reform the pension system.

But all sides have struggled to get voters excited about the poll, with just 47.5 percent turning out on Sunday.

Since early-2000s reforms to the electoral calendar, interest in the legislative vote -- which follows on the heels of the presidential poll -- has dwindled, as it has always given the head of state a handy majority.