French President Emmanuel Macron and his allies lost their absolute majority in the National Assembly and control over the reform agenda, a crushing outcome for the newly re-elected president.
Sure, Mr Macron’s centrist ensemble! The alliance would win the most seats in Sunday’s elections, followed by the left-wing Nupes bloc led by far-left veteran Jean-Luc Melenchon, initial forecasts showed.
But Macron and his allies would fall far short of the absolute majority they would need to control parliament, with ministers and close associates acknowledging that, saying they would now need to reach out to others outside their alliance to run the country.
Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire called the outcome a “democratic shock” and said they would reach out to all pro-Europeans to help run the country.
“The defeat of the presidential party is complete, and there is no clear majority in sight,” Melenchon told cheering supporters.
United behind him, left-wing parties were seen on track to triple their score from the last parliamentary election in 2017 but failed to achieve the outright victory Melenchon had hoped for.
If confirmed, a hung parliament would usher in a period of political uncertainty requiring a certain division of power between parties not experienced in France in recent decades or political paralysis and possibly even a repeat of elections.
Rachida Dati of the conservative Les Republicains called the result “a bitter failure” for Macron and said he should appoint a new prime minister.
There is no set script in France for how things will unfold now, as Macron and Ensemble will try to find a way to avoid paralysis.
“There are moderates on the benches, right, left. There are moderate socialists and people on the right who, perhaps, will be on our side regarding legislation,” said government spokeswoman Olivia Gregoire.
In April, Macron, 44, became the first French president in 20 years to win a second term. Still, he presides over a deeply disenchanted and divided country where support for populist parties right and left has skyrocketed.
Its ability to push through further reforms of the eurozone’seurozone’srgest economy would depend on its ability to rally moderates outside its alliance on the right and left behind its legislative agenda.
Forecasts by pollsters Ifop, OpinionWay, Elabe, and Ipsos showed Macron’s EMacron’salliance won 210-240 seats, and Nupes took 149-188.
The former head of the National Assembly, Richard Ferrand, and health minister Brigitte Bourguignon lost their seats in two major defeats for Mr. Macron’s cMacron’sther major change for French politics is that Le Pen’s partner’s increase its number of MPs tenfold and could win up to nearly 100 seats, early forecasts show, the largest number ever.
The Les Republicains party and its allies could also get 100, potentially making them kingmakers, as their platform is more compatible with Macra’s tMacron’sother groups.
