Macron’s main opponent is now Mélenchon, not Le Pen

Here we go again. Exhausted by a presidential campaign that ultimately produced the same choice as in 2017 (and the same result), French voters go to the polls again on June 12 and June 19 to vote for their National Assembly. Quite possibly with the same results as last time. The denizens of the Café de la Paix are not mesmerised. Abstention is likely to be high.

To call it a singular election is to immediately mislead. It’s not one election but 577 of them. It’s democracy, but not especially edifying. Ultimately more than 8,000 candidates are likely to stand from left, right and centre along with the usual rag-tag of animal rights activists, monarchists, Frexiteers and greens. But this will be narrowed down in the second round of voting, mostly to a choice between candidates loyal to re-elected president Macron, and more radical insurgents from the left or right. Leaving the centre lane wide open for the president and his allies.