Allies of French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday started working to cobble together a working parliamentary majority to salvage his second term, after his alliance crumbled in an election against surges from the left and far-right.
Macron’s Ensemble (Together) coalition emerged as the largest party in parliamentary elections, but was dozens of seats short of keeping the parliamentary majority it had enjoyed for the past five years.
It was to begin work to try and find a majority by forming deals with other parties on the right, stirring up turmoil unprecedented in French politics in recent years.
Photo: Bloomberg
Macron, 44, now also risks being distracted by domestic problems as he seeks to play a prominent role in putting an end to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and as a key statesman in the EU.
The election saw a new left-wing alliance make gains to become the main opposition, while the far-right under Marine Le Pen posted its best legislative performance in its history.
“This situation constitutes a risk for our country, given the challenges that we have to confront,” French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne said in a televised statement on Sunday. “We will work from tomorrow to build a working majority.”
The outcome severely tarnished Macron’s April presidential election victory when he defeated the far-right to be the first French president to win a second term in more than two decades.
“It’s a turning point for his image of invincibility,” said Bruno Cautres, a researcher at the Centre for Political Research of Sciences Po.
The options available to Macron, who had yet to publicly comment on the result, ranged from seeking to form a new coalition alliance, passing legislation based on ad hoc agreements to calling new elections.
Le Monde headlined on its Web site “Macron faces the risk of political paralysis,” while right-wing Le Figaro said the results raised the specter of a “stillborn new mandate.”
Left-leaning Liberation said the results represented the “fall” of Macron’s way of governing.
The new left-wing coalition NUPES under 70-year-old Jean-Luc Melenchon won 135 seats, according to a count based on the results published by the government.
The coalition, formed in May after the left splintered for April’s presidential elections, brings together Socialists, the hard left, Communists and Greens.
Melenchon called Sunday’s results “above all an electoral failure” for Macron.
“The rout of the presidential party is total and there will be no majority” in parliament, he told cheering supporters in Paris.
A prominent lawmaker from Melenchon’s party, Alexis Corbiere, said the result meant Macron’s plan to raise the French retirement age to 65 had been “sunk.”
Far-right leader Le Pen’s National Rally party made huge gains and is to send 89 lawmakers to the new parliament, making it the biggest right-wing force in parliament ahead of the traditional right, the Republicans (LR).
Le Pen hailed the historic result for her party, saying it would send “by far” its highest number of lawmakers to the next National Assembly.
Macron had hoped to stamp his second term with an ambitious program of tax cuts, welfare reform and raising the retirement age. All that is now in question.
“This will complicate the reforms... It will be much more difficult to govern,” said Dominique Rousseau, professor of law at Paris Pantheon-Sorbonne University.
There could now potentially be weeks of political deadlock as the president seeks to reach out to new parties.
The most likely option would be an alliance with the Republicans, the traditional party of the French right, which has 61 lawmakers, but Republicans president Christian Jacob made clear there would be no easy partnership, saying his party intended to “stay in opposition.”
However, other voices from the right appeared more open — former minister Jean-Francois Cope said a “government pact is vital between Macron and LR to fight against the rise of extremes.”
French Minister of the Economy and Finance Bruno Le Maire denied that the nation would be ungovernable, but admitted “a lot of imagination would be needed” from the ruling party in an “unprecedented situation.”
In another blow to Macron, key ministers standing for election are set to lose their jobs under a convention that they should resign if they fail to win seats.
French Minister of Solidarity and Health Brigitte Bourguignon, Secretary of State for the Sea Justine Benin and Minister for Ecological Transition and Territorial Cohesion Amelie de Montchalin — a pillar of Macron’s administration over the past years — all lost and would now exit the government.
Two other close Macron allies, French National Assembly Speaker Richard Ferrand and former minister of the interior Christophe Castaner, both acknowledged defeat in the fight for their seats.
In a rare spot of good news for the president, French Secretary of State for European Affairs Clement Beaune and Minister of Public Transformation and Service Stanislas Guerini — both young pillars of his party — won tight battles for their seats.
On the left, Rachel Keke, a former cleaning lady who campaigned for better working conditions at her hotel, was also elected, defeating Macron’s former French minister of sports Roxana Maracineanu.
Turnout was low, with the abstention rate recorded at 53.77 percent, higher than the first round, but not beating the record worst turnout of 2017.
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