French President Emmanuel Macron risks a setback in Senate elections on Sunday but the result shouldn’t be interpreted as a judgment on his performance, the leader of his small faction in the upper chamber of parliament said.
There are 170out of 348 senate seats up for renewal. Because they are chosen by an electoral college based on municipal councilors and mayors, the result will largely reflect France’s last set of local elections in 2014 -- two years before Macron formed his political party.
With Macron’s approval rating down by about 16 points since June, the result presents the traditional parties displaced by the 39-year-old’s upset victory in this year’s presidential contest with a chance to land a blow. But Senator Francois Patriat says such an interpretation is wide of the mark.
“They’ll try to argue that this reflects French public opinion, that it’s the return of the right and the traditional left, that this binary left-right choice is indestructible,” Patriat said in an interview. “It’s a total fabrication. His popularity could be at 70 percent and it wouldn’t make any difference.”
Macron’s party, The Republic on the Move, currently has 29 senators who defected from other parties. Patriat sees that number increasing, though more importantly he is counting on lawmakers from other parties to back the government’s program on a case by case basis.
The National Assembly, where Macron has a clear majority, has the final say on all normal legislation, though the Senate is key for Macron’s plan to change the constitution to reduce the number of lawmakers. Patriat estimates that he might need about 175 votes in the upper house to do that.
“I’m an optimist and I’m ambitious -- it’s not impossible,” he said. “The objective is to have the maximum number of senators who support our program.
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