Macron Accuses French Left and Right of ‘Incoherent’ Pitches

Ania Nussbaum
·2-min read

(Bloomberg) -- French President Emmanuel Macron lashed out at the opposition on the left and right, calling both sides “incoherent” as he left the Group of Seven summit.

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His comments come at the tail end of a G-7 summit where the French leader appeared preoccupied with problems back home. He called a snap election after getting a drubbing in European parliament elections last week.

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Since then both Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally and the country’s left-leaning political parties have swung into action in an attempt to seize the political moment.

Macron appeared clearly in campaign mode and was unusually talkative at the gathering of world leaders in southern Italy, taking questions from reporters on Friday evening despite his advisers trying to wrap things up in the background.

On his way back to Paris, he took the opportunity to slam the economic programs of the left-wing alliance and the far-right, calling them “unrealistic, incoherent and not serious.”

Macron has markets spooked. Investors are recoiling from the prospect that Macron’s centrist, pro-business Renaissance party will lose further ground in Parliament in the two-round vote, June 30 and July 7. It’s unclear how the center-right Republicans are going to respond to the call-to-arms as infighting ensues.

Meanwhile the Greens, Socialists, Communists and far-left France Unbowed party have come together to try and show they can win the second-biggest bloc behind National Rally.

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That’s left Macron — and Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire — sending out warnings about both sides with scare-mongering tactics that are reminiscent of 2016 warnings against Brexit and Donald Trump’s ascension to the White House.

“They are not ready to govern,” Macron told reporters before getting on a plane back to Paris. “There are two extreme blocks today who are not responsible, and who are promising gifts to people that are not financed.”

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