Political earthquake in France as traditional right will work with populist right | Eastern NC Now

French politics has just had one earthquake as President Macron called an early election of the lower house of parliament after his party lost by a margin of more than two to one to the populist nationalist anti-immigration National Rally of Marine LePen in the EU parliament election.  Now it has just had another, as the leader of the traditional conservative Les Republicains has announced that they will work with the National Rally in the upcoming election.  That puts an end to the decades long cordon sanitaire where all the establishment parties agreed not to work with the populist right.

The right will be represented by four parties in the upcoming election, the populist nationalist anti-immigration National Rally, the traditional conserevative Les Republicains, the even more strident populist nationalist anti-immigration Reconquest Party, and the small sovereigntist anti-globalist Debout la France.  The working arrangement between paries of the right is important because in the French multi-party system, if no candidate gets a majority in the first round of voting, there is a runoff a week later between the two top finishers.  This cooperation greatly enhances the chances of electing a working majority of conservatives in the lower house.  Conservatives, the Les Republicains, already control the French Senate, which will not be up for election this time.

https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2024/06/11/political-earthquake-french-centre-right-leader-backs-alliance-with-le-pens-populists-against-macron/

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13519489/europe-hard-right-coalition-parties-france-netherlands-eu-parliament-elections.html

Meanwhile, in next door Belgium where national elections were held simultaneously with the EU parliamentary election, a swing to the right has left two rival populist Flemist nationalist anti-immigration parties as the first and second largest parties as negotiations for a new government are set to get underway. The New Flemish Alliance, which ran first, advocates changing Belgium into a confederation instead of the current federation, futher loosening the ties between the more populuous and wealthy Dutch-speaking Flanders, the smaller French-speaking Waloonia, and the mixed population capital of Brussels.  Vlaams Belang, which narrowly finished second wants total independence for Flanders.  Finishing third was a traditional center-right Frendh-speaking party.  The biggest losers were the two green parties, one French speaking and one Dutch speaking, which lost over half of their seats, although the Flemish (Dutch speaking) liberal party of the current prime minister also took a beating.

Coalition buidling is difficult in Belgium because most parties only operate with voters of their own language group.  As the largest party, the Belgian king is expected to call on the New Flemish Alliance to negotiate the new coalition.  Governing coalitions are expected to contain both French and Dutch speaking parties.

https://europeanconservative.com/articles/news/belgian-elections-flemish-nationalist-parties-reign-supreme/