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‘Alarm bells ringing’: Dembélé calls on France stars to vote in key elections

French football star Ousmane Dembélé admitted on Thursday the political situation in the country had "set alarm bells ringing" and said he and his teammates intended to vote in upcoming legislative elections even if they are still involved at Euro 2024 in Germany.

Published: 13 June 2024 18:39 CEST

'Alarm bells ringing': Dembélé calls on France stars to vote in key elections

France's forward Ousmane Dembele gives a press conference at the Home Deluxe Arena Stadium in Paderborn, western Germany, on June 13. Photo by FRANCK FIFE / AFP

“We need to mobilise to get out and vote,” Dembélé told reporters at the French team’s training base in western Germany where they are preparing for their opening European Championship game against Austria on Monday.

“I think the situation in France has set alarm bells ringing. Everyone needs to rally round and come together to vote.”

President Emmanuel Macron has called snap parliamentary elections with the first round set for June 30th and the second round on July 7th.

READ ALSO What do snap parliamentary elections mean for France?

He announced the snap poll last Sunday in response to the results of the EU elections, in which far-right parties — including the top-scoring Rassemblement National (RN) — managed to take almost 40 percent of the vote in France.

“I was watching the news not long ago and I saw that one in every two people in France doesn’t vote, so everyone needs to vote in the legislative elections,” added Dembélé, the former Barcelona winger now playing back in France for Paris Saint-Germain.

The French squad will still be in Germany at the time of the election, provided they make it beyond the group stage.

The first round of the election is set to take place the same weekend as the last 16 of Euro 2024, while the second round comes just after the quarter-finals.

However, Dembélé said the French Football Federation was planning to help players set up a proxy vote if they remained in Germany at the time.

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Will Macron resign in case of a French election disaster?

On Sunday, June 9th, the French president stunned Europe when he called snap parliamentary elections in France, in the wake of humiliating results for his centrist group in the European elections.

The French president has the power to dissolve parliament and call fresh elections – but this power is rarely used and in recent decades French parliaments have run on fixed terms. Very few people predicted Macron’s move.

But polling for the fresh elections (held over two rounds on June 30th and July 7th) is looking very bad for the president’s centrist Renaissance party – currently trailing third behind Marine Le Pen’s far-right Rassemblement National and the combined leftist group Nouveau Front Populaire.

Listen to the team from The Local discussing all the election latest in the new episode of the Talking France podcast. Download here or listen on the link below

The election was a gamble for Macron – but if his gamble fails will he resign?

What does the law and the constitution say?

Legally, Macron does not need to resign. In France the presidential and the parliamentary elections are separate – Macron himself was re-elected in 2022 with a five-year mandate (until May 2027).

His party failing to gain a parliamentary majority does not change that – in fact the centrists failed to gain a overall majority in the 2022 parliamentary elections too (although they remained the largest party). Since then, the government has limped on, managing to pass some legislation by using constitutional powers.

The constitution also offers no compulsion or even a suggestion that the president should resign if he fails to form a government.

In fact the current constitution (France has had five) gives a significant amount of power to the president at the expense of parliament – the president has the power to dissolve parliament (as Macron has demonstrated), to set policy on areas including defence and diplomacy and to bypass parliament entirely and force through legislation (through the tool known as Article 49.3).

In fact there are only three reasons in the constitution that a president would finish their term of office early; resigning, dying in office or being the subject of impeachment proceedings.

Since 1958, only one president has resigned – Charles de Gaulle quit in 1969 after the failure of a referendum that he had backed. He died 18 months later, at the age of 79.

OK, but is he likely to resign?

He says not. In an open letter to the French people published over the weekend, Macron wrote: “You can trust me to act until May 2027 as your president, protector at every moment of our republic, our values, respectful of pluralism and your choices, at your service and that of the nation.”

He insisted that the coming vote was “neither a presidential election, nor a vote of confidence in the president of the republic” but a response to “a single question: who should govern France?”

So it looks likely that Macron will stay put.

And he wouldn’t be the first French president to continue in office despite his party having failed to win a parliamentary majority – presidents François Mitterand and Jacques Chirac both served part of their term in office in a ‘cohabitation‘ – the term for when the president is forced to appoint an opposition politician as prime minister.

But should he resign?

The choice to call the snap elections was Macron’s decision, it seems he took the decision after discussing it just a few close advisers and it surprised and/or infuriated even senior people in his own party.

If the poll leads to political chaos then, many will blame Macron personally and there will be many people calling for his resignation (although that’s hardly new – Macron démission has been a regular cry from political opponents over the last seven years as he enacted policies that they didn’t like).

Regardless of the morality of dealing with the fallout of your own errors, there is also the practicality – if current polling is to be believed, none of the parties are set to achieve an overall majority and the likely result with be an extremely protracted and messy stalemate with unstable governments, fragile coalitions and caretaker prime ministers. It might make sense to have some stability at the top, even if that figure is extremely personally unpopular.

He may leave the country immediately after the result of the second round, however. Washington is hosting a NATO summit on July 9th-11th and a French president would normally attend that as a representative of a key NATO member.

You can follow all the latest election news HERE or sign up to receive by email our bi-weekly election breakdown

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