Paris: France’s President Emmanuel Macron and his allies were fighting for a way out of the political impasse on Monday after a surprising blow to the president and his reform plans, losing a majority of parliament. The Macron Ensemble (together) coalition emerged as the largest party in the National Assembly vote on Sunday, but lacked dozens of seats to maintain a majority in Congress over the past five years.
The surge in left and far right has destroyed the dominant position of Macron’s agent, who has steadily supported the president’s policies for the past five years. Voter turnout was low, with an abstention rate of 53.77 percent. The left-wing Jiefang Daily called the result Macron’s “slap,” and conservative Le Figaro said he was “faced with ungovernable France.”
Macron’s Together Alliance has won 244 seats, well below the 289 seats required for a majority of the total. According to the Interior Ministry, in the election, the New Left Alliance NUPES made a profit to become a major opposition force along with its 137-seat ally. However, it is unclear whether the coalition of socialists, communists, Greens, and the left-wing French Ambowd will remain united in parliament.
Meanwhile, Marine Le Pen’s far right has recorded the best legislative performance in its history, becoming the strongest single opposition with eight to 89 seats in the outgoing room. Her confident Mr. Le Pen said that, as with her biggest opposition tradition, her party requires that she chair the powerful Finance Commission of Parliament. “This country is not ungovernable, but it will not be governed as Emmanuel Macron wanted,” Le Pen told reporters Monday. She said she would now abandon her party’s leadership and instead focus on running a parliamentary group.
“I can’t continue”
Hard-line firefighter Jean-Luc Melenceon, who heads the NUPES alliance, said he would pass a distrust resolution against Macron’s Prime Minister Elizabeth Borne as early as July. “The government formed by Emmanuel Macron can’t just continue as if nothing had happened,” Melenceon’s ally Manuel Bompard said on Monday.
Bourne, who was elected to Congress in the first political race in history, was considered vulnerable because Macron faced a new cabinet turmoil after some of his top allies lost seats. .. His Minister of Health and Environment will have lost his seat and will traditionally have to resign, as the Speaker of Parliament and the Chair of Macron’s Parliamentary Group did.
“For now, the prime minister remains prime minister,” government spokesman Olivia Grégoire rebelliously told French interradio on Monday. “My fear is that the country is paralyzed.” As a result, the first France to win a second term in more than 20 years, damaging the victory of the presidential election in April when Macron defeated Le Pen. I became president. “It’s a turning point in his invincible image,” said Bruno Courtless, a researcher at Sciences Po in Paris.
Lots of imagination “
Macron’s options, which have not yet publicly commented on the outcome, range from seeking the formation of a new coalition, passing a bill based on an extraordinary agreement, and even calling for a new election. The most likely option is an alliance with the Republican Party, a traditional party of French rights with 61 members. However, LR President Christian Jacob said his party was intended to “stay in opposition.”
Economic Minister Bruno Le Maire admitted that Macron’s party “needs a lot of imagination” after saying that Le Figaro was a “dive into the unknown.” “We are entering an unprecedented and uncertain era,” said Jean-Daniel Levy of Harris Interactive France. “There are no off-the-shelf deals for the government,” he told AFP.
Macron hoped to enter his second term with an ambitious program of tax cuts, welfare reforms and retirement age increases. It’s all about the problem right now. Macron’s plan to raise France’s retirement age to 65 has now “sunk,” said Alexis Corbières, a prominent member of the Melenceon Party.
Unusual good news for the president, European Minister Clement Beaune and Minister of Public Affairs Stanislas Gerini (both young pillars of the party) won a fierce battle for seats. On the left, former cleaner Rachel Keke, who campaigned for better working conditions at the hotel, was also elected, defeating Macron’s former sports minister, Roxana Maracineanu.
The financial markets took a lot of news on the results on Monday with little reaction in the stock and bond markets. “It’s not an overly negative scenario,” said Xavier Chapard, an analyst at La Banque Postale. “Government is still centrist and it is still pro-European.” – AFP
