Many top politicians in France want to quickly tick off the fiasco of the regional elections.
Two thirds of those eligible to vote stayed away from the vote.
The fight for the presidency is on.
Paris - After their slips in the regional elections in France, head of state Emmanuel Macron and right-wing populist Marine Le Pen are weakened in the fight for the presidency.
Le Pen demonstratively opened the marathon race for the top office in the Élysée Palace: The presidential election in spring 2022 will offer more than ever an opportunity for a change of policy, she said after her defeat.
Your Rassemblement National (RN) failed in the second round of elections on Sunday with the plan to conquer a region for the first time and thus create a solid power base for right-wing populists.
In the case of civil rights, on the other hand, several potential contenders with strong results positioned themselves for the election battle in the coming year.
Among them is ex-minister Xavier Bertrand (56) in the north, who is seen as a possible bearer of hope in the conservative camp, which has been deeply divided up to now.
Macron, who has not yet announced an official candidacy for re-election, is obviously under pressure. The 43-year-old will contact the French in July to present his strategy for the rest of the term, government spokesman Gabriel Attal announced on Monday. "Our country is at a turning point."
The Macron confidante and former minister Christophe Castaner said with a view to the election result: “This is a slap in the face for democracy and for our political party.” Around two out of three eligible voters stayed away from the vote - more than ever before. "We take this situation seriously, of course," said Prime Minister Jean Castex at a virtual meeting of the Franco-German Parliamentary Assembly: "We are committed to ensuring that French democracy works as well as possible." The daily newspaper "Le Monde" spoke of a "huge gap" that separates - especially young - voters and the representatives of the people.
The elections, which took place three months later than initially planned because of the corona pandemic, revealed significant weaknesses in the Macron camp in the regions. The remaining candidates of the presidential party LREM and its allies ended up in the back seats. Only in the overseas region of Guadeloupe was a middle-class politician who, according to the media, belongs to the Macron camp, able to prevail. Most of the regions went to the previous incumbents of the civil right and left. The French media spoke of a “status quo election”.
Macron was on Monday at an appointment in the Hauts-de-France region of the conservative election winner Bertrand and was undeterred. "We are creating industrial jobs again," said the head of state in front of Renault workers - and announced a billion-dollar investment by the Chinese Envision group in a battery factory. Afterwards there was a meeting with 150 company bosses in the palace of Versailles for the promotion of the location.
Some commentators said that Le Pen will have to be responsible for their comparatively moderate course at the RN party congress in just under a week.
For example, the 52-year-old daughter of Front-National co-founder Jean-Marie Le Pen has long waived the radical demand for an exit from the euro zone in order to give the party a broader support base.
However, she continues to take a line that is anti-European and anti-immigration.
In addition, Le Pen stands for a hardline course on internal security.
Le Pen's party had hoped to conquer the Provence-Alpes-Côte-d'Azur region with the cities of Marseille and Nice.
Candidate Thierry Mariani only got 42.7 percent, as the Interior Ministry announced.
The bourgeois-conservative applicant Renaud Muselier achieved 57.3 percent.
dpa
