Paris: French President Emmanuel Macron and his allies lost their absolute majority in the National Assembly on Sunday and with it control of the reform agenda, a crushing result for the newly-elected president. Certainly, Macro’s centrist outfit! The coalition was set to end up with the most seats in Sunday’s election, followed by the left-wing Nupes bloc, led by radical-left veteran Jean-Luc Mélenchon, preliminary estimates showed. But Macron and his allies will fall far short of the absolute majority needed to control parliament, and ministers and close aides recognize that they will now have to reach out to others beyond their coalition to rule the country.
Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire called the results a “democratic blow” and said they would reach out to all pro-European people to help govern the country.
“The presidential defeat is complete and there is no clear majority,” Mélenchon told supporters.
United behind them, the left-wing parties, were seen to have tripled their score from the last legislative election in 2017, but failed to secure Mélancheon’s outright victory.
If ratified, a hung parliament would open up a period of political uncertainty that would require power-sharing between parties not experienced in France in recent decades, or lead to political paralysis and even possibly There may also be re-elections.
Rachida Daati of the conservative Les Republicans called the result “a bitter failure” for Macron and said he should name a new prime minister.
There is no script in France for how things will unfold as Macron and the Ensemble look for a way forward to avoid the paralysis.
Macron, 44, became the first French president in April to win a second term in two decades, but he presides over a deeply disillusioned and divided country where support for populist parties on the right and left has increased.
His ability to further reform the euro zone’s second-largest economy will depend on his ability to rally moderates outside his coalition to the right and left behind his legislative agenda.
Pollsters Ifop, Opinionway, Elabe and Ipsos have predicted 210-240 seats for Macron’s Ensemble coalition and 149-188 for Nups.