What will the French Elections mean for Europe . . . and for France? – PART 1

Overview and predictions for the first round of the French elections.

Over the next two weekends French voters will be going to the polls to select a new national government. France's President Emmanuel Macron called the elections in an emergency response to the victory of the "far-right" National Rassemblement,, in elections to the European Assembly. Apparently he intended to demonstrate that the Euro-results were an aberration by rallying the other parties to defeat the NR nationally. But opinion polls show that the NR's support among voters is almost forty per cent and holding up well whereas the President's own centrist liberals are trailing in third place. These elections open up the possibility of major changes in the conduct of France's democracy and government. Will the National Rassemblement be able to enter into government for the first time leaping over the cordon sanitaire that has excluded the party from office until now? If so, will President Macron form of working partnership or "cohabitation" with the NR administration? Or will he resign? And what is likely to be the impact on wider European politics? In the first of three programs on the elections and their consequences between French, American, and Hungarian experts, Anne-Elisabeth Moutet of the London Sunday Telegraph and Daniel Mahoney, author of several books on French and European politics discuss these and other questions.