French President Emmanuel Macron lost control of the National Assembly in the legislative elections on Sunday, a major setback that could put the country in political paralysis if it is unable to negotiate alliances with other parties.
Macron’s centrist Ensemble coalition, which wants to raise the retirement age and further deepen EU integration, is expected to end most of the seats in Sunday’s election. But this was far below the absolute majority needed to control parliament, the initial projections and the first results were shown.
A broad left-wing alliance was to become the largest opposition group, while the far right achieved record victories and the Conservatives were likely to become kings.
Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire called the outcome a “democratic shock” and added that if other blocs did not cooperate, “this would block our ability to reform and protect the French”.
A suspended parliament will require a degree of division of power and commitments between parties that have not been experienced in France in recent decades. Macron could eventually call early elections if a legislative deadlock occurs.
French President Emmanuel Macron leaves a polling booth in Le Touquet in northern France on Sunday. (Michel Spingler / The Associated Press)
There is no established script in France on how things will unfold now. The last time a newly elected president failed to win an absolute majority in parliamentary elections was in 1988.
“The result is a risk to our country in the face of the challenges we face,” said Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne, adding that from Monday the Macron camp will work to seek alliances.
Macron could eventually call early elections if a legislative deadlock occurs.
“The defeat of the presidential party is total and there is no clear majority in sight,” hard left veteran Jean-Luc Mélenchon told his supporters.
The left-wing newspaper Liberation described the result as a “slap” for Macron, and the economic newspaper Les Echos said it was “an earthquake”.
Left and far right gains
United behind Mélenchon, left-wing parties were on the verge of tripling their score in the last legislative elections in 2017.
In another significant change for French politics, the National Rally party of far-right leader Marine Le Pen could achieve a tenfold increase in MPs with up to 90-95 seats, initial projections showed. This would be the party’s largest representation in the assembly.
Far-right party leader Marine Le Pen voted Sunday at a polling station in Henin-Beaumont, northern France. (Denis Charlet / AFP / Getty Images)
Initial projections by pollsters Ifop, OpinionWay, Elabe and Ipsos showed that the Macron Ensemble alliance won 210-240 seats, Nupes 141-188 and Les Républicains 60-75.
Macron became the first French president in two decades to win a second term in April, as voters rallied to keep the far right out of power.
But seen offline by many voters, he presides over a deeply disillusioned and divided country where support for right-wing and left-wing populist parties has increased.
Its ability to pursue reforms in the eurozone’s second largest economy depends on gaining support for its moderate-out-of-all-right policies from both its right and left alliance.
Alliances?
Macron and his allies must now decide whether to seek an alliance with the conservatives Les Républicains, who finished fourth, or whether to lead a minority government that will have to negotiate laws with other parties on a case-by-case basis.
“There are moderates in the banks, on the right, on the left. There are moderate socialists and there are people on the right who, perhaps in law, will be on our side,” said government spokeswoman Olivia Gregoire.
The platform of Les Républicains is more compatible with Ensemble than other parties. Both together have absolute majority chances in the final results, which requires at least 289 seats in the lower house.
Workers emptied a ballot box at a Cambrai polling station on Sunday. (Pascal Rossignol / Reuters)
Christian Jacob, the leader of Les Républicains, said his party would remain in opposition but would be “constructive”, and suggested case-by-case agreements rather than a coalition pact.
Former National Assembly chief Richard Ferrand and Health Minister Brigitte Bourguignon lost their seats in two major defeats for the Macron camp.
Macron had called for a strong mandate during a bitter campaign against the backdrop of a war in the eastern strip of Europe that has reduced food and energy supplies and raised inflation, eroding family budgets.
The leader of the hard left, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, surrenders in Paris on Sunday after initial results showed gains for his parliamentary bloc. (Michel Euler / The Associated Press)
“Nothing would be worse than adding French disorder to world disorder,” the president had said before the second round.
The Nupes de Mélenchon alliance campaigned to freeze the prices of essential goods, lower the retirement age, limit inheritance and ban companies that pay dividends to lay off workers. Mélenchon also calls for disobedience to the European Union.