Overview

The 2024 French Parliament Election, taking place on June 30th and July 7th, 2024, is the upcoming national election aiming to renew the French Parliament. It follows President Emmanuel Macron's announcement to dissolve the National Assembly, following the defeat of his party during the 2024 European Parliamentary Election.

Background

On June 9th, 2024, the European Parliament Election took place simultaneously in most countries of the European Union.^[1] In France, this election saw a historical lead of the far-right nationalist party Rassemblement National (RN) led by former presidential candidate Marine Le Pen and incumbent MEP Jordan Bardella.^[2] The RN gathered 31 percent of the votes, largely surpassing Macron's party Renaissance, which gained 14 percent, and Raphael Glücksmann's Socialist Party, which gained 13 percent.

Following the announcement of the results, President Macron addressed the nation in a TV speech, announcing the dissolution of the National assembly and the organization of anticipated legislative elections, whose two rounds would take place on June 30th and July 7th, 2024.

This announcement surprised many observers, and many thought the decision extremely risky with a high probability that the RN would win the majority of the legislature, effectively handing them the government.^[3][4][5]

Developments

Union of the Left-Wing parties – "Front Populaire"

Immediately following President Macron's announcement, Parliament Member François Ruffin^[6] launched a call to the main left-wing political forces to unite against the rise of the far right.

On June 10th, 2024, the main left-wing political forces of the Socialist Party, the French Communist Party, La France Insoumise, the Ecologist Party and several others announced their agreement on creating a common coalition to unite the candidates in all constituencies.

The political alliance was named "Front Populaire" (Popular Front), historically referencing the left-wing coalition that took power in 1936 in France,^[7] opposing the rise of Nazism in Germany.

Les Republicains Internal Dispute – Eric Ciotti Locking Himself Up

On June 11th, 2024, the head of the main conservative party, Eric Ciotti, announced that his party "Les Republicains," the party of former presidents Jacques Chirac and Nicolas Sarkozy, would ally with the RN.^[9] Immediately, many members of the party criticized this move and announced a disciplinary measure to kick him out of the party. As a result, on June 12th, Mr. Ciotti barricaded himself inside the empty headquarters of the Party in Paris to prevent the other members from uniting against him and threatened them with a lawsuit.^[10][11]

The event was widely mocked on French social media, generating several memes and image and video edits (examples shown below).

Front Populaire Victory

On July 7th, 2024, France's New Popular Front (NFP) party pulled off a surprising victory in the country's snap election, winning 182 seats in the French parliament, while Macron's Ensemble Alliance won 163. Marine Le Pen's far-right National Rally party won 143 seats.^[12]

The event was widely celebrated among the left in France, but it led to a hung Parliament in the country and political uncertainty in France, as questions remain about how the many parties that make up the NFP will coexist now they've won a plurality in parliament.

That day, Twitter / X user @ianbremmer^[15] posted a side-by-side of France's left and right reacting to the results as they came in, gaining over 4,300 retweets and 29,000 likes in one day (shown below).

While questions about France's future remain, the victory was celebrated globally online by left-wing users, while "RIP France" trended on Twitter due to a high volume of the phrase being used by right-wingers.^[13] The trending phrase led to celebration by left-wingers on Twitter.

For example, on July 7th, 2024, Twitter user @ChiSmilee^[14] posted a celebratory video mocking the trending phrase, gaining over 4,000 retweets and 34,000 likes in one day (shown below, top). On the 8th, Twitter user @XiranJayZhao^[16] brought up the memes about NFP candidates, saying, "Can't believe the French Left actually won the election with fancams and fanart," gaining over 2,700 retweets and 20,000 likes in one day (shown below, bottom).

Political Deadlock

Following the NFP victory in July 2024, France entered a period of political deadlock in which, on August 26th, 2024, Macron formally rejected the NFP's claim to govern, as well as their nomination for Prime Minister, Lucie Castets.^[17]

As the NFP won a plurality but not a majority of seats in the French parliament, Macron argued that an NFP Prime Minister would likely be immediately removed in a vote of no confidence by the right-wing and centrist parties in parliament, stating, "Such a government would immediately have a majority of more than 350 MPs against it, effectively preventing it from acting." He refused to name a Prime Minister from the NFP in the interest of "institutional stability."

The LFI, a faction within the NFP, described Macron's decision as an "unacceptable anti-democratic coup."^[18] Multiple leaders of factions within the NFP called for Macron's impeachment.

Online supporters of the NFP and onlookers similarly characterized the deadlock as a "coup." On August 26th, 2024, Twitter / X user @RnaudBertrand^[19] described the situation thusly:

Macron's party got way less votes and MPs than the NPF, yet it is Macron's party that's still running the French government, and it is Macron himself making choices on who can or cannot assume power based on what he thinks would "weaken France" or not. It's insane when you think about it.

His post gained over 9,000 retweets and 23,000 likes in one day (seen below).

As of August 27th, 2024, Macron's Centrist party remains in power on an interim basis.

Related Memes

Characters Voting Front Populaire

Video Game Characters Voting for Nouveau Front Populaire (French for "New Popular Front") refers to a series of Photoshop-edited screenshots from different video games displaying characters requesting to vote for Nouveau Front Populaire, the French left-wing political coalition for the early legislative election in France. These screenshots are shared on X/Twitter with the sentence "C'est pas moi qui le dit c'est" followed by the name of the pictured character, to imply that they're the one saying it.

Front Populaire Candidates Fan Art

Front Populaire Candidate Fan Art refers to a series of fan arts representing various candidates from the left-wing coalition "Front Populaire." The art trend began Twitter/X when user @emil_lovemail^[8] called "left-wing artists" to babygirlify the candidates as a form of political mobilization.

External References