Beaune, a 40-year-old rising star in Macron’s circle, helped shape the French president’s pro-European policy – influenced by his international student days in Dublin and Belgium – and put pressure on the United Kingdom over the past year. post-Brexit fisheries rights dispute. But now the career civil servant is running in his first election, as an MP in a Paris constituency that stretches from the tourist attractions and gay bars of the Marais district to the gentle streets and social housing of the east. It is considered one of the decisive political battles of Macron’s second term. Beaune’s opponent is Caroline Mécary, 59, one of France’s leading lawyers for same-sex equality and a well-known LGBTQ + rights activist who defends the new left-wing alliance. An Ifop poll in early June found that Mécary was well above Beaune at 51%. If Beaune wins, he will become one of the biggest winners of the center-left of the French cabinet and could one day be the candidate for mayor of Paris. If he loses he will have to resign from the government. Lawyer Caroline Mécary defends the new left-wing alliance. Photo: Reuters The recently re-elected President Macron needs a majority for his broad center-right group in this month’s parliamentary elections in order to have a free hand in his plans to review the pension and benefit system and reduce taxes. But the left-wing alliance, led by the radical left-wing Jean-Luc Melanson, including the Greens and the Socialist Party, is rising in the polls, seeking to limit Macron’s lead. Without an absolute 289 majority in the 577-seat parliament, the French president may need to seek alliances on the right. Pollsters predict the left could take up to 205 seats, making it the largest opposition force, with far-right Marin Lepen potentially taking 20 to 50 seats. Macron waged a savage last-minute attack on the left-wing alliance, describing Melanson as a dangerous extremist who would kill the European Union, ally with Russia and add “global disorder”. Economy Minister Bruno Lemerre called Melanson “Galatians”, referring to the former Venezuelan leader. “Does this man eat children?” asked the left-wing daily Libération on its front page, criticizing the government’s attacks on Melanson. In the wake of the election campaign, Beaune told a rally in a school hall in eastern Paris that it was “the most important French parliamentary election in 40 years because it is uncertain and divisive”. He said there was “intense anger” among some voters and “intense indifference” from others. Polls suggest less than half of the French electorate will go to the polls. Subscribe to the First Edition, our free daily newsletter – every morning at 7 p.m. BST Beaune said Mélenchon’s political agenda, including a policy of circumventing certain rules of the European treaty, was “dangerous, irrational and excessive”. But what really worried him, he said, was that the political debate was becoming more and more “radicalized”, “divisive” and “violent” and now needed “calm”. Paris’s central constituency voted historic left before electing a centrist candidate for Macron five years ago, but some supporters warned Beaune that there was opposition on the spot to raising Macron’s retirement age. An election poster for Clement Beaune. Photo: Reuters Beaune has emerged as a Social Democrat who defends equality. He appeared as a gay man in a French magazine in 2020, saying he was “not an obstacle” to being in government and has also spoken out about members of his Jewish family who were deported to Auschwitz. His father, a former hospital medicine professor, helped him with the election publication. Beaune’s opponent, Mécary, led a fierce campaign from the base, especially east of Paris. A former member of the pro-European Greens who served as Paris’s adviser, he was never a member of Melanson’s hard-line party, France Unbowed. She calls herself “primarily a lawyer and a candidate for civil society.” However, he aims to build on Melanson’s support in the presidential election, when he narrowly lost a place in the second round, which brought Macron against Le Pen. In a pamphlet at a market near the Bastille, Mécary said: “What I hear from voters on the ground is the desire for change and for Macron not to have all the power in his hands in parliament. People are worried about hospitals and schools and the protection of the public service. “They feel that Macron does not see or hear the ordinary citizens of the working class.” Visiting market stalls with two staunch pro-European members of the Socialist Party, Mécary refuted Beaune’s claims that it was anti-European. “When Clément Beaune was five years old, I graduated from the Sorbonne with a degree in European law,” he said. “It will be very close here,” said a retired hospital worker on a fruit stand. “I voted for Macron as president just to keep the far right out. “Now I will vote for the left to send a message to Macron – to protect hospitals and schools and not just rule the rich.”
