Catherine Field: France Correspondent on the building tension surrounding France's snap election

The claims the election in France has set the country on edge are being deemed an understatement.  

The snap election called by President Emmanuel Macron earlier this month has the anti-immigration and European Union-sceptic National Rally party enjoying a strong lead in the polls. 

French Correspondent Catherine Field told Mike Hosking that the tension is palpable, with nobody quite knowing where this is going to end. 

She says they're looking at another 36 hours or so before they learn who will be standing in the next round of elections.  

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
To France. We go casin feel very good morning to you.
Good morning. Some of the more tabloid papers I'm reading
at the moment says France is on edge. Is there
a fair assessment of what's happened or not? Really?

Speaker 2 (00:11):
I think that's very fair. It could also be an understatement, Mike. Really,
their tension is just palpable. Nobody quite knows where this
is going to end. We're looking at possibly another twenty
four to thirty six hours before we find out who
will actually be standing in the second round of the elections.
Of course, this big shot that Marine Lapan's national rallies

(00:34):
scored what one in three votes for the first round
of the legislative elections, but no one really expected it
to be quite that high. I I sort of thought
it might be, but no one really put it at
that high. So it's almost like it's always that France
came to the edge of the cliff, looked over the wops.
We don't really want to go there. But still this

(00:57):
uncertainty as to what's going to what's going to happen
next weekend. But what we're looking at now, Mike, is
there's scrambling among all the other parties to form alliances
to decide on tactical voting, because we've got that huge
block on the left, the Popular Front, which has come
away with a lot of votes, a lot of possible
treasure there. But they've come together with Macron's party and

(01:21):
they're now deciding which of their candidates will will withdraw
from the race because in the runoff some of them
have got three candidates. So what they're now deciding is
between the two of them who will withdraw from the
race that will give the under the candidate as strong
a chance of coming in ahead of the national rally.
So that's where we are tonight's we're looking at having

(01:42):
what three hundred and six runoffs at the week next weekend,
we've got two hundred more coming, you know it. The
only people that seem to be happy about the moment, Mike,
the financial markets who were so pleased that Mahin Lapen
didn't win an absolute majority in that first round.

Speaker 1 (02:00):
Let me ask you this question, as they do all
of these mad deals, do people see this as a
jurymanded type system and do as a voter, you know
what you're actually getting when you go to vote for
somebody who's done a deal with somebody who may represent
something or may not.

Speaker 2 (02:15):
Well not at the moment, Mike, it's still regarded as
you doing your patriotic duty, that you're standing up against
the forces of the far right. But you're quite right
to point that out, make because we've had now two
presidential elections in a row where you've had Mahine Lapan
and the runoff, and everyone said, you cannot vote for
the far right. It is just a step too far

(02:37):
and people having to vote for someone because they just
don't like them, but they need to keep the far
in outs. Yeah, you do hear that a lot, and
you particularly hear a lot in the in younger voters
who are saying, well, look, I'm actually more interested in
ecological issues, you're interested in cost of living, interested in jobs,
and we're having to put all this on hold to

(02:59):
not allow far right to get into powers. So you
are hearing that, but for the moment, and I think
that's what everyone's saying is it's a patrio duty to
make sure that you are voting for someone who isn't
the far right.

Speaker 1 (03:12):
If it doesn't work, is that the biggest cock up
in the history of cockups for Macron in calling an election,
he didn't need to call.

Speaker 2 (03:21):
I think that's it. This is it is completely backfired.
It says stain on his record. He didn't need to
do this. There was this talk that he might dissolve
parliament in the autumn, but he didn't need to do that.
And it's not just a stain on his record, Mike,
It's more that the whole landscape has just swept away

(03:43):
everything that Macron bought in back in twenty seventeen to
bring him in. And he's got at best three more
years of having a parliament where you've got two blocks,
the far left and the far right in parliament. He
just to test one another. So best case scenario is
have uncertainty.

Speaker 1 (04:01):
So, given France have just beaten Belgium, are you going
all the way and does that solve everything?

Speaker 2 (04:06):
No, it doesn't. Have you seen any of these batches,
it's just been a poorly I mean, most of the
French goals in this tournament make have been scored. Have
you owned goals? And I noticed the French commentators, we're
just saying when France went through on this one, which
was an own goal scored by Belgium, they're saying, well,
you know, own goals seems to have been the best
scorer for France in this tournament so far.

Speaker 1 (04:26):
To see you, Catherine, appreciate it very much. Just a
quick note, by the way, that Badella, who's the twenty
eight year old marine Lapenz picked the prime minister. He
will only take the job if he gets to eighty
nine seats or the party gets to eighty nine seats,
which is the majority. Generally speaking, it is thought they
won't get there, which means he won't take the job,
which means we are in as of this coming Sunday

(04:47):
for a stalemate, but that is yet to unfold. For
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