France’s Republican party faces extinction
Tilting right did it no favours
TWENTY YEARS ago an ambitious politician led the French centre-right into European Parliament elections and was humiliated. The 12.8% secured by the young Nicolas Sarkozy was so dismal that the party dispatched him into the political wilderness (he later staged a comeback and won the presidency). Today, however, the party has done even worse than it did in 1999. After scoring a pitiful 8.5% in May’s European elections, the very survival of the once-mighty Republicans is in the balance.
This article appeared in the Europe section of the print edition under the headline “Into the wilderness”
Europe June 29th 2019
From the June 29th 2019 edition
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