A coalition of the French left won a majority of seats in Sunday’s election, defeating the growing far-right, but failed to secure the majority needed to govern alone. The election result looks set to plunge France, a pillar of the European Union and host country of the Olympic Games, into political gridlock.
Political uncertainty could shake markets and the French economy, the second largest in the European Union, and weigh on the war in Ukraine, global diplomacy and Europe’s economic stability.
With new elections called for June 9 after the far-right surged in French European Parliament polls, President Emmanuel Macron said a return to voters could provide “clarity”.
But such an aim seems to have failed. According to official results released Monday morning, the three main blocs failed to secure the 289 seats needed to control the 577-member National Assembly.
The results showed that the left-wing coalition of the New Popular Front, which came first, secured 182 seats, ahead of Macron’s center alliance, with 164 seats. Marine Le Pen’s National Union came third with 143 seats, a significant increase from the 89 seats it won in the 2022 election.
Such a composition of the parliament is “uncharted ground” for contemporary France.
“Our country is facing an unprecedented political situation…” said Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, who plans to tender his resignation later in the day.
With the Olympic Games on the horizon, Prime Minister Attal said that he is ready to stay in his post “as long as the duty requires”. Macron has three years left in his presidential term.
Prime Minister Attal made clearer than ever his disagreement with President Macron’s decision to call elections, saying “I did not choose this dissolution” of the National Assembly, where the president’s alliance was the single largest group, although without an absolute majority. However, he was able to govern for two years, drawing lawmakers from other camps to fight attempts to oust him.
The new composition of the National Assembly does not seem to have such stability. President Macron, who will travel to Washington to attend a NATO summit this week, will leave a country with no clear idea of who the next prime minister might be and the possibility that the president could forced to share power with a politician deeply opposed to his policies.
However, many people rejoiced. In Paris’s Stalingrad Square, left-wing supporters cheered and clapped as predictions showing the left-wing alliance’s lead were flashed on a giant screen. Cheers also erupted in the Place de la République in eastern Paris.
Even before the votes were cast, the election changed the political map of France. They urged left-wing parties to put aside their differences to join the new left-wing alliance, which vows to block many of Macron’s key reforms, launch a massively expensive public spending program and toe a much more conservative line. harsh against Israel because of the war with Hamas.
President Macron described the left-wing coalition as “extreme” and warned that his economic program of tens of billions of euros in public spending, partly financed by tax increases on the richest, could be devastating for France, already criticized by the EU’s debt watchdogs.
However, the leaders of the New Popular Front called on President Macron to give the alliance the first chance to form a government and propose a prime minister.
The main leader of the left coalition, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, said that he is “ready to govern”.
As the Union Nationale won more seats than ever, the anti-immigration party with historical links to anti-Semitism and racism fell short of its hopes of securing an absolute majority, which would have given France its first far-right government. , since World War II.
After the party came out on top in the first round of elections last weekend, its rivals worked to dash its hopes of an outright victory on Sunday, strategically fielding candidates from multiple constituencies. This left many far-right candidates facing only one opponent.
Many voters decided that keeping the far right out of power was more important to them than anything else, supporting her opponents in the run-off, even if they were not from their own political camp.
However, National Union leader Marine Le Pen, who is expected to run for a fourth term in the 2027 presidential election, said the election laid the foundations for “tomorrow’s victory”.
Jordan Bardella, Ms Le Pen’s 28-year-old pet who hoped to become prime minister, said the vote result “throws France into the arms of the extreme left”.
In a statement from his office, President Macron said there would be no rush to invite a potential prime minister to form the government. He said he will wait for the results and for the new National Assembly to take shape, before bringing the “necessary decisions”, respecting the “sovereign choice of the French”.
Unlike other countries in Europe that are more used to coalition governments, France has no tradition of lawmakers from rival political camps coming together to form a majority. France is also more centralized than many other European countries, with many more decisions being made from Paris.
President Macron hoped that with the fate of France in their hands, voters could turn away from the extreme right and left and return to the main parties closer to the center, where Macron enjoys the most support that won him the presidency in 2017 and again in 2022. He hoped this would strengthen his presidency for the remaining three years in office.
But instead of coming out in support of him, millions of voters used his surprise decision as an opportunity to express their anger with inflation, crime, immigration and other concerns, including his style of government.
The sharp polarization of French politics, especially in the hot and fast campaign, is sure to complicate any coalition-building efforts. Racism and anti-Semitism marred the election campaign, along with Russian disinformation campaigns, while more than 50 candidates reported being physically assaulted – highly unusual for France.
