A new alliance of the French left is pressuring the grouping of Emmanuel Macron in the second round of parliamentary elections, while the president tries to maintain his parliamentary majority.
Macron’s centrists could lose dozens of seats in the French national assembly at the end of next Sunday after the strong show of a historic left-wing party alliance, led by France Unbowed with the Socialists and the Greens. from the left takes Jean-Luc Mélenchon hard.
“A few months ago, there were televised debates over whether the left was dead and finished,” said Clémentine Autain, who is likely to win re-election in Seine-Saint-Denis on the outskirts of Paris for the alliance known as the New Popular Ecological and Ecological. Social Union or Weddings. “Frankly, this alliance is a success.” He said it was crucial now that the left try to get young and low-income people who did not go to the polls out.
Macron, who was re-elected president in April against Marine Le Pen, needs a majority for his group in the lower house of parliament to have a free hand for his proposals to raise the retirement age, reduce taxes and make changes to the welfare system.
Macron’s centrists and their allies, who run under the banner of Ensemble (Together), are still expected to win most of the 577-seat seats in the House. But to get the absolute majority they need 289 seats. Pollsters predict that they will occupy between 255 and 295 seats, which means that a clear majority is not guaranteed.
Le Pen’s far-right National Rally also did well and is likely to increase its seats, despite a historically low turnout of only 47% in France.
A result on Sunday without an absolute majority for Macron’s camp could provoke a disorderly struggle as he tries to extend his centrist alliance to new parties or make individual agreements for each piece of legislation, for example with right-wing opponents like Les Républicains. There could also be a reshuffle of the government.
Macron’s centrists came out worse in Sunday’s first-round parliamentary vote than they did when he was first elected five years ago in 2017.
“It’s clearly not a great result,” Mathieu Gallard, research director of the Ipsos polls, told France Inter radio. “Macron’s group also lost 3.9 million votes from its first-round presidential election.”
The form of the future parliament will now depend on the final vote on June 19.
Several Macron ministers are fighting the left in close electoral struggles and will have to resign from the government if they lose. It includes Amélie de Montchalin, the Minister of the Environment, who is fighting in Essonne, on the outskirts of Paris. Macron’s party leader, Public Service Minister Stanislas Guerini, as well as European Minister Clément Beaune, are fighting for reduced careers in different parts of Paris.
Montchalin set the tone for a heated battle against the left, telling a television channel that the left-wing alliance was extremists who wanted “anarchy” and “disorder” and to weaken French institutions. Elisabeth Borne, the prime minister, who is expected to be elected in Normandy, said Mélenchon’s left-wing alliance represented a “break with Europe, a fascination with authoritarian regimes” and alignment with Russia.
The nupaes scored a tactical blow on the first lap. The fact that they are joining for the first time in 25 years, presenting a single candidate in the constituencies, means that they will considerably increase their representation in parliament. They will more than double their number of seats and are expected to win between 150 and 210 to become the largest opposition force in parliament.
Four left-wing MPs, including three young candidates, were first elected in the Paris area as the alliance gained ground in and around urban centers.
Meanwhile, the progress of Le Pen’s party was significant. It has increased its votes by more than 1.2 million since the last parliamentary elections in 2017.
The far right could win up to 40 seats, up from eight in 2017. That would be historic, as Le Pen’s party has traditionally been hampered by a lack of proportional representation in parliament and fought in the first round. subsequent voting system. More than 15 seats would give Le Pen a formal group in parliament, with more visibility to talk and put issues on the agenda, as well as crucial additional financial resources. In some departments, such as the Pas-de-Calais in the north and the Vaucluse in the south, the party passed in the second round in all constituencies. He also gained support in the northeast.
The right-wing party Les Républicains and its allies were fourth in terms of turnout and expect to hold between 33 and 80 seats. It is a fall of the more than 300 parliamentarians of 20 years ago under Jacques Chirac, or of the 100 seats occupied by the right and its allies at the end of the last parliament. But the group could play a major role if Macron’s centrists fail to get the majority and seek new alliances.