Emmanuel Macron’s centrists are facing a disastrous first-round vote

Cradling his demi of beer with a tattooed arm, Jocelyn needs few words to sum up the upcoming French election: “It’s all about Macron”. In the small town of Châteaudun, in rural west-central France, he is sitting at a pavement café on the main square, shaded by plane trees, just days before the first round of French parliamentary elections on June 30th. An industrial-machine operator, Jocelyn has no doubt as to the way fellow voters will show their displeasure at the French president, Emmanuel Macron: by backing Marine Le Pen’s hard-right National Rally (RN). The RN, he says, “used to have an image as a racist and fascist party, but not any more.”