Macron is finished and will soon have to resign: Marine Le Pen

National Rally leader says French president has fallen out with everyone and no longer has any influence in the European Union

President of Rassemblement National parliamentary group Marine Le Pen says President Emmanuel Macros will soon be forced to quit. Picture: Geoffroy van der Hasselt/AFP

President Emmanuel Macron is “finished” and will soon be forced to quit, paving the way for an early presidential election, Marine Le Pen has said.

The National Rally leader’s comments to Le Parisien newspaper raised speculation that she might be prepared to join the push for a second confidence vote in the government expected to be formed this week by François Bayrou, Mr Macron’s new Prime Minister.

She had previously been thought unlikely to back a push to topple another government so soon after the ousting of former prime minister Michel Barnier.

Such a move would risk undermining her image as a responsible politician of the right, carefully cultivated over more than a decade to convince mainstream voters she would act in the national interest.

Ms Le Pen, however, said Mr Macron had lost all authority both at home and abroad. She pointed out Mr Bayrou had reportedly forced the President to name him as prime minister by threatening to pull his party out of the presidential coalition if he appointed anyone else.

“Emmanuel Macron is finished, or nearly,” Ms Le Pen said. “He has even lost his power to appoint the prime minister, who appointed himself.”

She said European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, whom Mr Macron helped to secure the post, had also embarrassed him by overriding his objections to an EU trade deal with the Mercosur bloc of South American countries.

“He has lost his grip internationally. He has fallen out with everyone. He no longer has any influence in the European Union and was humiliated in the worst manner by his ‘creature’, Mrs von der Leyen,” Ms Le Pen said.

According to opinion polls, Ms Le Pen would be favourite to win an early presidential election should Mr Macron quit before his term ends in 2027.

But critics accused her of seeking to engineer an election before March, when a court is due to deliver a verdict in her trial on charges of embezzling European parliament funds.

“She fears the court will declare her ineligible for political office,” former justice minister Éric Dupond-Moretti told France-Inter radio. “That’s why she’s trying to accelerate the process.”

Prosecutors have urged the court to sentence her to a five-year prison term and bar her from elected office for five years.

Ms Le Pen denied seeking to topple Mr Macron. She said he could be forced out by his own centrist group in the hung parliament, split between three opposing blocs.

“I’m preparing for an early presidential election as a precaution, because of Emmanuel Macron’s fragility and the few institutional levers that he still has,” she said. “The problems could even come from his own centrist bloc, which could disagree with his prime minister, or from the financial markets. There are many reasons that could push Emmanuel Macron to end his term of office.”

Ms Le Pen faces a tricky balancing act between being cast as the political outsider intent on disrupting the French establishment and the “deep state”, and gaining broad enough support to win the presidency.

She said she had no regrets about voting with the far left to bring down the Barnier government, pointing out she still held a comfortable lead in the polls over other possible candidates.

“The opinion polls show that the French people have understood what we did and seemed to agree that we should do it. Permit me to point out that of all the disasters the government warned us of, from the so-called shutdown to a financial crisis, absolutely none have happened. The French people realise that.”

Ms Le Pen said she would judge Mr Bayrou “by his actions”. She was the first opposition politician with whom the new Prime Minister held talks after his appointment last week. She said he had “promised to listen” to her party’s demands for no tax rises when drafting next year’s budget.

The two see eye to eye on introducing a measure of proportional representation to French elections, something Mr Bayrou has campaigned for over the years as the leader of a small centrist party that would stand to gain parliamentary seats.

By his own admission, Mr Bayrou faces a challenge of “Himalayan” proportions in putting together a government stable enough to survive France’s worst political turmoil in six decades.

There were signs he could be helped by a widening rift between the centre-left Socialists and France Unbowed, their far-left partners in the New Popular Front alliance.

Both parties voted to topple Mr Barnier, and France Unbowed has already vowed to bring down Mr Bayrou.

The Times