Letter: Macron’s snap poll is a choice of the lesser evil

Reactions to President Emmanuel Macron’s decision to call a snap poll after his centrist alliance was trounced by Marine Le Pen’s far-right movement in a European parliamentary vote are somewhat confusing (“Far-right TikTok king aims to take PM role”, Report, June 13).

Macron simply respected the spirit (if not the letter) of the French constitution. Before he made the announcement, Jordan Bardella of Le Pen’s far-right Rassemblement National party was already starting to demand immediate legislative elections. Had Macron refused to accept the challenge, would this have produced better results?

On Gideon Rachman’s podcast, Célia Belin, senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations and head of its Paris office, said Macron’s “decision could have historical consequences. A lot of pundits have compared this to David Cameron’s fateful decision over putting Brexit to a vote, and I think it’s a fair comparison.” But before making such comparisons it might be useful to keep in mind that the referendum in the case of the UK was, and is, an extra-constitutional (and badly regulated) procedure.

Macron’s decision was perfectly in line with the practice of France under the constitution of the Fifth Republic. It was a choice of the lesser evil. We shall see what French voters make of it.

Guido Franzinetti
Department of Humanistic Studies, University of Eastern Piedmont,
Vercelli, Italy