President Emmanuel Macron emerged on the French political scene as a bold, new leader seeking to reform France through radical pro-business, pro-European policies, promising voters that “there will no longer be any reason” to vote for the extremes.

Seven years after his first election, his decision to call early elections weakens him both at home and abroad, while the extreme right seems to be one step before its rise to power. Macron, whose presidential term ends in 2027, has said he will not step down earlier.

However, the prospect of defeat in parliamentary elections means he may have to share power with a prime minister from a rival political party, possibly far-right National Rally president Jordan Bardela.

After his centrist coalition’s crushing defeat in EU elections, Macron described his decision to lead the country to early elections as something of a one-way street as he argued his coalition does not have a parliamentary majority from 2022, despite having the most seats. The situation forced him into political maneuvering to pass bills.

Voters on Sunday and July 7 will choose who to send to the National Assembly to form a new government.

Macron defeated its president of National Rally, Marine Le Pentwice in the presidential elections, in 2017 and 2022.

Moments after his first win, then aged 39, he took to the stage in the courtyard of the Louvre Museum in Paris to the sound of the European anthem ‘Ode to Joy’. There he declared of Le Pen’s voters: “I will do everything … so that they no longer have any reason to vote for the extremes.”

Macron’s centrist political alliance with the slogan “neither right nor left” crushed traditional rivals, the Socialist Party and the conservative Republicans.

In 2022, as he defeated Le Pen again but by a smaller margin, Macron acknowledged that the French did not vote “to support my ideas, but rather to block those of the extreme right”.

Now, the existence of his centrist alliance is threatened. Opinion polls show that candidates from the extreme right and the broad left coalition, the New People’s Front, are ahead in the parliamentary race.

“Liberty, Equality, Fraternity”

Former Prime Minister Edouard Philippe recently declared that Macron “killed the presidential majority”.

Early on Friday, after the EU summit in Brussels, Macron justified his decision to dissolve the National Assembly.

“It was necessary to ask voters for clarification. And I don’t think we can pursue ambitious policies without the participation of the people,” he said.

Asked about a National Rally MP who argued that dual nationals, such as a French-Moroccan former minister, should not be members of the government, Macron replied that this “says a lot about what is at stake”.

He referred to France’s ideals of “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity.” “Open racism or anti-Semitism are a deep betrayal of what France is, of its values, what our Republic is. And this is something that we have to fight for strongly and that we have to be outraged about,” Macron said. “Because it’s not about politics, it’s not just about voting. It’s about the very possibility of living together.”

“I will never give up” the fight against the far right “no matter what,” Macron said.

Asked if he discussed the French election with Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said in Brussels “it would be very strange if I didn’t talk to my friend Emmanuel Macron about it. That’s what we’re doing”.

Schulz, who belongs to the center-left Social Democrats, added: “Of course I hope that, for example, the parties that are politically closer to me do better than others. … We should not wait for the result.”

Macron argued at a press conference earlier this month that his economic achievements speak for themselves. Unemployment fell from 10% to 7.5% and France is now the most attractive European country for foreign investment in recent years.

However, his tenure has been marred by major turmoil, from the Yellow Vest protests against social and economic injustice, the COVID-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine and last year’s riots sparked by the fatal police shooting of a teenager.

Whatever the outcome, Macron’s move to call early elections already leaves France weakened on the European stage, according to Lisa Thomas-Darbois, deputy director of French studies at the Paris-based think tank Institut Montaigne.

“It has caused some fear among our European and international partners,” he said. “Just to see the reduced credibility in our interest rates in the financial markets.” “Is it because we’re potentially facing a political stalemate for a year? Or is it because we could potentially have the National Coalition in power? We can’t really say at this stage,” he said. “What is certain is that the attitude of the National Rally is not likely to be reassuring in terms of the image of France in the coming years.”