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PRESIDENT EMMANUEL MACRON is to start efforts to extract France from its most severe political uncertainty in decades after the left defeated the far right in elections with no group winning an absolute majority.
The outcome of the legislative elections, called by Macron three years ahead of schedule in a bid to reshape the political landscape, leaves France without any clear path to forming a new government three weeks before the Paris Olympics.
Prime Minister Gabriel Attal is due to submit his resignation to Macron on Monday but has also made clear he is ready to stay on in a caretaker capacity as weeks of political uncertainty loom.
The left is emerging as the biggest group in the new parliament but has yet to even agree on a figure who it would want to be the new prime minister.
The unprecedented situation is taking shape just as Macron is due to be out of the country for most of the week, taking part in the NATO summit in Washington.
“Is this the biggest crisis of the Fifth Republic?” that began in 1958, asked Gael Sliman, president of the Odoxa polling group.
“Emmanuel Macron wanted clarification with the dissolution, now we are in total uncertainty. A very thick fog.”
After winning the June 30 first round by a clear margin, the results were a major disappointment for the far-right National Rally (RN) of Marine Le Pen, even if her forces are set to boast about their biggest ever contingent in parliament.
Macron’s centrist alliance will have dozens fewer members of parliament, but held up better than expected and could even end in second.
The left-wing New Popular Front (NFP) — formed last month after Macron called snap elections — brought the previously deeply divided Socialists, Greens, Communists and the hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) together in one camp.
Projections by major polling agencies showed the NFP set to be the largest bloc in the new National Assembly with 177 to 198 seats, Macron’s alliance on 152 to 169 seats and the RN on 135 to 145 seats.
That would put no group near the 289 seats needed for an absolute majority and it remains unclear how a new government could be formed.
Macron, who has yet to speak in public about the projections, is calling for “prudence and analysis of the results”, said an aide, asking not to be named.
LFI lawmaker Clementine Autain called on the NFP alliance to gather on Monday to decide on a suitable candidate for prime minister.
In key individual battles, Le Pen’s sister Marie-Caroline narrowly lost out on being a lawmaker, but former president Francois Hollande will return to frontline politics as a Socialist member of parliament.
Firebrand leftist Jean-Luc Melenchon, leader of LFI and the controversial figurehead of the NFP coalition, demanded that the left be allowed to form a government.
Only one week ago, some polls had indicated the RN could win an absolute majority with Le Pen’s 28-year-old lieutenant Jordan Bardella becoming prime minister.
Instead, he expressed fury.
Bardella dubbed the local electoral pacts that saw the left and centrists avoid splitting the anti-RN vote as an “alliance of dishonour”.
He said it had thrown “France into the arms of Jean-Luc Melenchon’s extreme left”.
Le Pen, who wants to launch a fourth bid for the presidency in 2027, declared: “The tide is rising. It did not rise high enough this time, but it continues to rise and, consequently, our victory has only been delayed.”
The first round saw more than 200 tactical-voting pacts between centre and left-wing candidates in seats to attempt to prevent the RN winning an absolute majority.
This has been hailed as a return of the anti-far right “Republican Front” first summoned when Le Pen’s father Jean-Marie faced Jacques Chirac in the run-off of 2002 presidential elections.
The question for France now is if this alliance of last resort can support a stable government, dogged by a still substantial RN bloc in parliament led by Le Pen herself as she prepares a 2027 presidential bid.
Risk analysis firm Eurasia Group said there was “no obvious governing majority” in the new parliament.
“It may take many weeks to resolve the muddle while the present government manages current business.”
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Has anyone reported in the news how the far left and islamists rioted in the major cities of France even after they knew they won the election? France is a crazy place. Full of anarchists.
@Oliver Cleary: The Leftists might be in for a big shock yet.
Iranian Revolution (late 1978–1979)
Much of Iranian society was in euphoria about the coming revolution. Secular and leftist politicians piled onto the movement hoping to gain power in the aftermath, ignoring the fact that Khomeini was the very antithesis to all of the positions they supported.
The 1981 massacre.
Between June 1981 and March 1982, the theocratic regime carried out the largest political massacre in Iranian history, targeting communists, socialists, social democrats, liberals, monarchists, moderate Islamists, and members of the Baha’i faith as part of the Iranian Cultural Revolution decreed by Khomeini on 14 June 1980 with the intent of “purifying” Iranian society of non-Islamic elements.
-Wikipedia.
@sean mcnamara: Leftists, what is a leftist? The alliance is a wide ranging coalition of the left and center left.
Somehow I doubt if the 5th Republic of France will turn rouge like Iran did!.
Nice panic scare tactic however, different!
So in order to stop the RN a bunch of left groupings, most of whom don’t like each other, got together to steal the election.The French rejected a party who would have fixed their crime and immigration problem while sorting out their failing economy.The left alliance= more benefits for thise who don’t work, taxing the rich to excess and raising wages for poor civil servants. This is what the French are celebrating. It shows me just how idiotic they really are.
@Gerry Lamont: the French have experience of being ruled by a pretty infamous far right party. It seems they didn’t like it and are reluctant to repeat the experience.
@Soundy Sound: Agreed but is the removal of candidates in order to manipulate the election outcome AFTER the first round legally ok?
@Gerry Lamont: Steal the election?
Who you think you are? Nobody is entitled to office as much as you’d like the fascists to have it.
@Gerry Lamont: You don’t steal elections with voting pacts. You don’t steal elections by tactical voting.
The French people rejected a party that are very good at complaining but have never actually achieved anything.
The French people have seen that like in the UK there is a set divide, the urban vote is center left and the rural vote is right wing.
The French do not like Fascism, they have seen it first hand.
@Gerry Lamont: Viva la France!!! Brilliant!!!! They did exactly the same thing in the UK, incl N.I.by certain parties not standing in certain areas, e.g Sorcha. Look at FF/FG. It’s called, tactical voting, standing up against the greater evil of the far right. The same is going to happen in the States, when good people / Democrats, will bond together to defeat the evils of the Supreme Court and trump.
@Athena: Its legally OK in France because they’re system allows for it. It’s not the greatest system in the world but it’s theirs.
If Macron had any decency he would resign and people would call for election. Make no sense it stays in power after that
@Dominic Leleu:
While they have avoided the worst case scenario, the hard right, someone will have to try temper the excesses of the hard left
@Dominic Leleu: Even if he did resign, no parliament election possible until June next year in the parliament according to the constitution. And while a presidential election is happening, which would that a few months, the president of the Senate would become the interim president.
221 candidates withdraw from three way races . It’s a skewed system that is quite cyclical.
A shambles, Macron & the EU have created a monster, reject one third of French voters to vote in the Far Left & the Communists who celebrated with riots in all the major cities. The Far Left, Communists, Socialists & Greens can’t even agree on a leader & are ready to pile on the taxes for those working, to pay for those who won’t work & all the new arrivals. Only a matter of time before it all falls apart.
@SV3tN8M4: eu didn’t elect macron, a third of voters falls far short of a majority, the left tax people who can afford it, taxes are used, in part, for public services that are useful to all, the unemployment in France is low, France is a former coloniser and is reaping the consequences…etc
@SV3tN8M4: Pile on taxes, and you know this as an expert on French politics. Glad to have you on here. As none of the other articles have pointed this out.
People who won’t work, I love that line, it says so much then the new arrivals line, says even more.
The left must fully devour itself before the the right sweeps in to clean up the mess
@mickey mac: lol
@mickey mac: when has that ever happened, the right have never cleaned anything up except maybe ethnic cleaning!
Sweet Sweet Democracy.
The French at this confusing hour need somebody of the calibre of Charles de Gaulle. Les gaullistes reviendront pout restorer la France du vingtieme siecle.
Sweet Sweet Democracy
Decramatic election derailed by far left extremists
@087 bed: Democratic.
@087 bed: You russians don’t know the meaning of democracy.
Thank goodness for that. Bad enough that The Netherlands went to the dark side. If France had followed suit I feared for the future of the EU.
VERY UNFORTUNATE
The irony of the right. If all immigrants were kicked out, how would restaurants, care homes , hospitals, farms and many public services function properly. Prices would significantly rise. The granny in the care home would have to be brought home to be looked after, by her now ex right wing, unemployed son, who would have to go to India, to be seen by a doctor or they couldn’t watch a soccer match because most of the players were sent home. Happy Days!! Yeah!!!!!!!!
When are Ireland going to be stop being flooded with non-eu cheap labour, promoted by fine gael/ FF, there needs to be strict conditions before non EU labour is allowed, 50% increase in salary of EU wages before any non EU EU labour allowed
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