French President Emmanuel Macron is facing a tough struggle to get an absolute majority in parliament that will allow him to govern with a free hand after the strong show of a new left-wing alliance in Sunday’s first round elections.
Projections based on the by-election results showed that, nationally, Macron’s party and its allies received between 25 and 26 percent of the vote. They were side by side with a new left-wing coalition made up of hard, socialist and green left-wing supporters.
However, Macron’s candidates are expected to win in a larger number of districts than their left-wing rivals, giving the president a majority.
More than 6,000 candidates ran for 577 seats in the French National Assembly in the first round of elections.
France’s two-round voting system is complex and disproportionate to national support for a party. For the races that did not have a decisive winner on Sunday, up to four candidates who received at least 12.5 percent support each will compete in a second round of voting on June 19th.
A voter votes Sunday in Marseille, southern France. (Daniel Cole / The Associated Press)
Following Macron’s re-election in May, his centrist coalition sought an absolute majority that would allow him to deliver on his campaign promises, which include tax cuts and raising France’s retirement age from 62 to 65.
However, Sunday’s projection shows that Macron’s party and allies could have trouble getting more than half of the seats in the National Assembly, much less than five years ago, when they won 361 seats. Electoral agencies estimated that Macron’s centrists could win from 255 to more than 300 seats, while the NUPES bloc led by hard-left leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon could win more than 200 seats.
The National Assembly has the final say on the Senate when it comes to passing laws.
Sunday’s turnout reached an all-time low for parliamentary elections, with less than half of France’s 48.7 million voters. Consumer concerns about rising inflation have dominated the campaign, but voter enthusiasm has been silenced.
Macron’s lack of an absolute majority would force him to have to make unruly bills with right-wing parties and could trigger a cabinet reshuffle.
No poll has shown that NUPES would win a ruling majority, a scenario that would lead France to an unstable period of coexistence where the president and prime minister come from different political groups.
Far-left leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon speaks in Marseille on Sunday with his supporters. (Daniel Cole / The Associated Press)
The Mélenchon platform includes a significant increase in the minimum wage, lowering the retirement age to 60 and blocking energy prices, which have skyrocketed due to the war in Ukraine. It is an anti-globalization brand that has called for France to withdraw from NATO and “disobey” EU rules.
Macron defeated far-right rival Marine Le Pen in the second round of the presidential election, and France’s parliamentary elections have traditionally been a difficult race for far-right candidates. Rivals from other parties tend to coordinate or side with each other to increase the chances of defeating far-right candidates in the second round of voting.
Far-right leader Marine Le Pen leaves a polling booth in Hénin-Beaumont, northern France, on Sunday. (Michel Spingler / The Associated Press)
Le Pen’s far-right National Rally hopes to do better than it did five years ago, when it won eight seats. With at least 15 seats, the far right could form a parliamentary group and gain more powers in the National Assembly.
Le Pen herself is running for re-election in her stronghold of Henin-Beaumont in northern France, where she voted Sunday.