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French President Emmanuel Macron has said he takes responsibility for the political divisions caused by his decision to hold snap parliamentary elections in the summer, saying the move had created “more instability than peace”.
“I have to admit tonight that the dissolution has brought, for the moment, more division in the Assembly than solution for the French,” he said in an annual New Year’s address. “I fully accept that.”
The speech, Macron’s eighth as president, caps a year in which his political influence has been significantly weakened by the breakup in June, which empowered the far-right Rassemblement National and left the French parliament divided into three blocs.
After a disappointing showing for his centrist candidates in European elections in early June, Macron surprised France by dissolving parliament, saying the country needed a “moment of clarification” to address the RN’s rise in European elections.
But subsequent elections produced a decisive rejection of his centrist, pro-business agenda and made RN France the largest party in a fractured parliament.
Macron appointed conservative politician and former Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier as prime minister in September. However, he was ousted in a no-confidence motion last month after he was unable to muster support from the far left and right for a budget designed to reduce France’s deficit, which has ballooned to more than 6 percent. in 2024.
Macron has since appointed his ally François Bayrou as prime minister. Calling for politicians to compromise in 2025, he suggested he might also ask French voters to vote again next year.
“I will also ask you to decide on some key issues because each of you will have a role to play,” he said in comments that some commentators said suggested possible referendums in 2025.
Macron also referred to the foreign policy challenges for France next year.
Following the re-election of Donald Trump as US president, who has called for increased defense spending by NATO allies, Macron said: “Europe can no longer delegate its security and defense to other powers,” repeated his calls for more European defense spending.
He also called on Europe to “simplify its rules” to encourage more business investment.
But the address is unlikely to change perceptions of Macron among voters. His popularity has fallen to a record low this year, with just 21 percent of people having confidence in his ability to handle France’s problems, in a poll by Elabe in December.
His far-right rival Marine Le Pen said in her New Year’s message on Tuesday that “delayed regrets or temporary appeals from a head of state who has finally been discredited will not change anything”.
While she did not openly call for Macron to hold early presidential elections before the next vote scheduled for 2027, Le Pen said 2025 would be a “decisive year”, adding that France could solve its problems only through a “democratic decision”.
