Macron camp struggles to make up ground ahead of France polls

PARIS - French President Emmanuel Macron's centrist government was making a last-ditch bid for votes on Wednesday, four days ahead of parliamentary elections where the far right has its best-ever chance of leading the government.

The tremors from Macron calling snap elections after his party suffered a drubbing in European polls are far from abating, with even figures close to the president acknowledging many French people are uneasy over the political crisis he has unleashed.

The far-right National Rally (RN) has a clear lead in opinion polls ahead of Sunday's first round of voting in the parliamentary elections, followed by the left-wing New Popular Front (NFP) coalition with Macron's centrist alliance lagging in third.

Aged just 28, RN party leader Jordan Bardella could become prime minister after the second round on July 7, although he has said he will only take the job if the RN wins an absolute majority in parliament.

With the unpopular Macron encouraged to take a back seat by allies, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal was Wednesday scheduled to keep up a frenetic campaign schedule with visits to the central Loire region and northern France.

'I DON'T WANT TO DIE'

On Tuesday evening, Bardella, Attal and left-wing representative Manuel Bompard clashed in a sometimes ill-tempered debate without landing any killer blows on their foes.

Bardella vowed that "if the French put their trust in me, I will be the prime minister of purchasing power", pledging cuts to VAT and tax breaks for the under-30s.

"I am prime minister. The difference with me is that I do not want to lie to the French," retorted Attal.

He also rounded on Bardella for his controversial proposal to ban French dual nationals from sensitive strategic posts.

"The message that you send is that dual nationals are half-nationals," he said.

The RN leader said for his part he would "drastically reduce migratory flows" if he becomes prime minister.

"There are millions of French people who no longer recognise France as the country they grew up in," he said.

Bompard told Bardella, who is himself of Italian and Algerian descent: "When your personal ancestors arrived in France, your political ancestors said exactly the same thing."

'POLITICAL CRISIS'

Regardless of the result, Macron has vowed to stay on as president until the end of his second term in 2027. He is expected to face three-time far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen, who will have her best chance yet of capturing the Elysee Palace.

Even allies of the president are still scratching their heads over why Macron called an election which appears certain to leave his alliance with far fewer seats than in the current National Assembly.

"There is a very strong sense of worry and a certain anger," Macron's former premier Edouard Philippe, who leads an allied party, told France Inter radio.

"Many people are disorientated, don't know which way the country is going to go, or if its political stability is guaranteed," he added.

An Ifop poll has the RN on 36 percent, the left-wing NFP on 29.5 percent and Macron's camp on 20.5 percent.

The most likely outcome according to most analysts is a hung parliament rather than an outright RN majority, leading to months of potential political chaos and paralysis.

The right-wing Senate speaker Gerard Larcher, France's number two according to the constitution, who would take over the presidency if Macron was incapacitated or suddenly resigned, said France was in the throes of a "major political crisis".

He accused Macron of "locking himself into a duel with the extremes" and and slammed the president's "distant and condescending attitude".

The high-profile interior minister, Gerald Darmanin, told BFMTV he wanted to leave the government after the election, sit as an MP and "build a new project".

"We are at the end of the cycle, we need to build another," he said.