Macron calls for fresh talks to free Gaza hostages

France's President Emmanuel Macron called Saturday for fresh talks for the release of the hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Published: 14 January 2024 15:17 CET

Macron calls for fresh talks to free Gaza hostages

France's President Emmanuel Macron called Saturday for fresh talks for the release of the hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Teresa SUAREZ/ POOL/AFP.

“The French nation is determined that… all the hostages of the October 7 terrorist attacks are freed,” he said in a video posted online and broadcast at a meeting in Tel Aviv in support of the hostages.

“France does not abandon its children,” he added. “That is why we have to resume negotiations again and again for their release.”

During its October 7 attack, Hamas seized about 250 hostages, 132 of whom Israel says remain in Gaza, including at least 25 believed to have been killed.

Three French citizens remain unaccounted for following the October 7 attack and are thought to be among the hostages held in Gaza.

On December 15, the Israeli army announced the death of Franco-Israeli Elya Toledano, who was captured and abducted while attending a desert rave party called the Supernova festival.

His friend, fellow French-Israeli Mia Shem, was among those released under a truce agreement at the end of November.

Israel says the Hamas attackers killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in their unprecedented attack on October 7.

Israel retaliated with a relentless bombing campaign and a ground offensive that the Hamas-run authorities in Gaza said Saturday had killed 23,843 people, mainly women and children.

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A hung parliament with a large eurosceptic, anti-immigration contingent could weaken France’s international standing and threaten Western unity in the face of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

With the country on tenterhooks, last week saw more than 200 tactical-voting pacts between centre and left wing candidates in seats to attempt to prevent the RN winning an absolute majority.

This has been hailed as a return of the anti-far right “Republican Front” first summoned when Marine Le Pen’s father Jean-Marie faced Jacques Chirac in the run-off of 2002 presidential elections.

Following the pacts, opinion polls forecast that the RN would fall short of the 289 seats needed for an outright majority in the 577-seat National Assembly, while still becoming the largest party.

Such an outcome could allow Macron to possibly build a broad coalition against the RN and keep Gabriel Attal as prime minister on a caretaker basis.

But it could also herald a long period of paralysed politics in France, as it prepares to host the Olympics from July 26th.

“Today the danger is a majority dominated by the far right and that would be catastrophic,” Attal said in a final pre-election interview with French television on Friday.

Many in France remain baffled over why Macron called an election which could end with the RN doubling its presence in parliament and his contingent of centrist MPs halving in number.

But the president, known for his theatrical gestures, appears intent on executing what he calls a “clarification” of French politics, which he hopes will eventually leave three clear camps of far right, centre and hard left.

The final opinion polls published by two organisations on Friday projected the RN would win between 170 to 210 seats, followed by the Nouveau Front Populaire (NFP) broad left-wing coalition on 145 to 185 and Macron’s centrists on 118 to 150.

Explained: The main parties and big names in France’s snap elections

While Macron’s Ensemble alliance is forecast to come third, the more successful NFP is a fragile mix of several warring factions ranging from traditional Socialists to the hard-left La France Insoumise (LFI) of firebrand Jean-Luc Melenchon.

“France is on the cusp of a seismic political shift,” said analysts at the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR), warning that even if Macron controlled the government after the election he would face “legislative gridlocks”.

This would weaken “France’s voice on the European and international stage.”

Macron, who disappeared from public view over recent days in order not to provoke the electorate further, has vowed to serve out his term until 2027, when he must step down.

That is when Le Pen scents her best chance to win the Elysée presidential palace at the fourth attempt.

Le Pen has angrily denounced what she has described as Macron’s vision for “one party” rule spanning the right to left by excluding the RN and lashed out at the French elites, which she says conspire against it.

But after the success of the first round, the RN had a sometimes tricky final week of campaigning with a handful of scandals involving RN candidates – including one who had been photographed wearing a Nazi military cap.

After voting began on Saturday in France’s overseas territories, polls opened in mainland France at 8am and were due to close by 8pm.

Preliminary results – which usually give a very close idea of the final outcome – are published shortly afterwards.

A total of 30,000 police, including 5,000 in Paris, have been deployed this weekend to head off trouble.

Follow all the latest news and analysis in English from 8pm on Sunday HERE