Emmanuel Macron has been warned by a former French president that his decision to call snap elections could plunge France into chaos, as his centrist party languishes third in opinion polls, far behind the far-right National Rally.
Nicolas Sarkozy said dissolving the national assembly was “a major risk” for France, “because it could plunge it into chaos, from which it will have the greatest difficulty emerging”.
Giving the floor to the French people’ to justify the dissolution is a curious argument since this is precisely what more than 25 million French people have just done at the polls,” Sarkozy toldLe Journal du Dimanche (JDD), referring to Macron’s response to the European elections on 9 June, when National Rally inflicted a crushing defeat on the president’s party.
“The risk is great [that] they confirm their anger rather than reverse it,” said Sarkozy, the centre-right president of France from 2007-12, who is said to be on good terms with Macron.