Les Républicains leader Eric Ciotti and far-right Rassemblement National leader Marine Le Pen at Jordan Bardella's press conference in Paris on June 24, 2024.

Voters haven’t yet cast their ballots, but hostilities over President Emmanuel Macron’s “reserved domain” in the areas of national defense and foreign policy, in the event of sharing power with the Rassemblement National (RN) should the far-right party win the majority of seats in the Assemblée Nationale, have already begun. While the RN has tended to smooth things over on these issues since the start of the campaign for the snap elections, the first round of which is due to take place on Sunday, June 30, Marine Le Pen launched her attack on Wednesday, June 26, in an interview with the daily Le Télégramme, in which she described the president’s title of “head of the armed forces” as a mere “honorary title.”

“Head of the armed forces, for the president, it’s an honorary title since it’s the prime minister who holds the purse strings. Jordan [Bardella, president of the RN] has no intention of picking a quarrel with him, but he has set red lines,” said Le Pen, when asked how a possible future prime minister from her party’s ranks might get on with Macron. “On Ukraine, the president would not send troops,” she also insisted, even though Macron and his government, in the absence of concrete progress, have for several weeks begun to clear the air on this option, speaking of “instructors” as part of a “coalition” of willing states, rather than “troops.”

The presidential camp did not take long to respond to Le Pen’s jibe. On Thursday afternoon Armed Forces Minister Sébastien Lecornu tweeted: “According to the Constitution, the president is, indeed, the guarantor – do you hear that? – guarantor of the country’s independence and integrity, as well as of the treaties that engage it. In short, he is answerable for France.” These words, quoting President Charles de Gaulle, were backed up by screenshots of the articles of the Constitution defining the powers attributed to the president of the Republic. Article 1 stipulates that the president is the “head of the armed forces.” When contacted, the Elysée Palace did not comment further.

‘Very serious message’

In the event of an RN victory and a cohabitation – when the president and the majority in Parliament come from two different camps– “there would be a form of dispute between the prime minister and the president of the Republic as to who has the role of head of the armed forces,” warned Prime Minister Gabriel Attal during the debate that pitted him against Socialist leader Olivier Faure and Bardella on Thursday evening. “It’s a message sent to world powers, to the whole world, which is a very serious message for the security of the French people.”

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