L'Election de France

'L'Election de France,' by Greg Smith is a digital illustration in the style of pen and watercolour drawings. It was published in The Nightly on the 9th of July 2024.  

At the top of the page, text reads, 'Le Election de France…Gridlock'. Underneath this is an imagined scene from the bicycle race, Tour de France, featuring French politicians with their shortened names on their jerseys.  

The background is a blue sky with a smattering of white cloud. From the top right of the image is a cascade of bikes, and riders being thrown over the handlebars, and lying amidst the chaos.  

In the foreground are three people wearing cycling gear and helmets, their bikes underneath them as part of the general wreckage. To the left is a street sign pointing left which reads, 'Le Crossroads.' The first rider, Marine Le Pen of the National Front Party, says, 'Hard right I said!'  Sitting to her right with his hands on his knees, President of France Emmanuel Macron says, 'Sacre bleu!'  To his right, a rider with the label 'NFP,' for the New Popular Front party or Nouveau Front Populaire, says, 'No, no, no… hard left!'   

A loose wheel spins away, off the edge of the image.  

The artist’s signature, 'Smithy', is in the top left corner under the title.  

The label text for this cartoon reads: France's legislative elections were held on 30 June and 7 July 2024. After two rounds of voting the result was a hung parliament. The left-wing New Popular Front won more seats than President Emmanuel Macron's Ensemble, a centrist coalition, and Marine Le Pen's far-right National Rally, but was short of an absolute majority. After a brief period of instability new prime minister Michel Barnier of the conservative Republicans Party formed a fragile minority government.