This week France has drifted from surprise to confusion and panic as Sunday’s second round vote approaches. The bien-pensant centre-left weekly Nouvel Obs’ cover says it all. Black lettering on a red background menacingly warns: ‘Avoiding the Worst’; ‘The National Rally at the gates of power’. Yet the National Rally is an officially recognised legitimate mainstream party. France is not staring into the abyss. But if we were to indulge in such gloom-ridden musings what would be France’s post-electoral worst case scenarios. Let us begin gently.

Marine Le Pen called this ‘an administrative coup d’etat’

In the event the National Rally cannot form a government on Monday, moves are already afoot by Macronist troops to cobble together a broad coalition that would stretch across the political divide from right-wing Republicans to the left, but exclude the National Rally and the radical-left France Unbowed party. Policies would of necessity incorporate expensive left-wing manifesto pledges certain to worsen France’s atrocious public finances and frighten the markets.

The 5th Republican constitution was neither designed for, nor does it possess, a coalition culture unlike continental Europe. Given the large numbers of National........

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