Editorial - Tragedy on the doorstep of the Grand Duchy

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The first act was the European elections on June 9, which saw the Rassemblement National, a cleaner version of the Front National, win 31.3% of the vote and 7.7 million votes, twice as many as the presidential majority Renaissance (14.6%) and far ahead of the timid revival of the Social Democrats (13.8%). A political earthquake that no one had time to digest, as an hour after the results were published, President Macron announced the dissolution of the National Assembly and the calling of early elections.

Second act: a crazy election campaign that condensed into three weeks the negotiations and alliances usually conducted behind the scenes over several months. On the left, a Nouveau front populaire (New Popular Front) was formed in a matter of days; on the right, a new implosion of the Republicans, whose president opted for an alliance with the RN; and in the centre, a presidential majority that could no longer stand its leader – to the extent that Emmanuel Macron was persona non grata on election posters. He further dramatised the stakes of the elections by putting the RN and the Nouveau Front Populaire back to back and brandishing a risk of "civil war" if one of the two were to win.