A painful defeat in France’s local elections this weekend showed the fragility of Emmanuel Macron’s party La République en Marche with less than two years to go to the next presidential election. LREM failed to take any of France’s large cities in Sunday’s second-round vote and allied incumbents elsewhere were swept from power. In Paris, which was supposed to be a showcase for the party’s disruptive appeal, its campaign was scuppered by scandal and infighting. Its candidate for mayor of the capital failed even to win a seat on the council. The only success for the government was Prime Minister Edouard Philippe’s comfortable victory in the port city of Le Havre. It says a lot about the handicaps of Mr Macron’s party, which is split between left and right-leaning factions and has few senior compelling figures, that Mr Philippe is not even a member.
上週末，法國總統馬紐埃爾•馬克宏(Emmanuel Macron)的共和國前進黨(La République En Marche)在法國市政選舉中慘敗，這顯示出該黨在距離下屆總統大選不到兩年之際的脆弱性。在上週日的第二輪選舉中，共和國前進黨未能拿下法國任何一個大城市，其他市鎮的在任盟友紛紛被趕下臺。在本應展示該黨顛覆性吸引力的巴黎，其競選活動因醜聞和內訌而搞砸。該黨的巴黎市長候選人甚至未能贏得市議會的席位。馬克宏政府唯一取得的成功是總理愛德華•菲力普(Édouard Philippe)在港口城市利哈佛(Le Havre)輕鬆獲勝。馬克宏的政黨已分裂爲左翼和右翼兩派，而且幾乎沒有具有號召力的高層人物；突顯該黨弱點的是，菲力普連黨員都不是。