In an effort to save himself, French President Emmanuel Macron appears to have sacrificed France. What was intended to be an election offering “clarification” for French voters has instead cast the nation into political turmoil reminiscent of the postwar Fourth Republic. France now finds itself ungovernable, with a far-left coalition resolute on “applying nothing but its program,” as Jean-Luc Mélenchon, leader of the New Popular Front’s largest party, said.

That program includes a reduced retirement age, reinstatement of the wealth tax, housing benefits, raises in public sector wages, and, on the foreign policy front, swift recognition of the “state” of Palestine. Should it have its way, too, the New Popular Front, a coalition of socialists, greens, and Mélenchon’s far-left Marxist France Unbowed party, will push France further along the path of cultural transformation on which the nation teeters.