The French far right and a coalition of left-wing parties have risen as President Emmanuel Macron lost his coveted majority in parliamentary elections on Sunday, a loss that could shape the country’s politics for years to come.
Early polls predicted that Le Republique en Marche de Macron would only win about 230 seats, surpassing all other parties and coalitions, but far from the 289 needed for an absolute majority and far fewer than the 350 it won. centrist political brand. and was attracted to his camp in 2017.
The New Ecological and Social People’s Union, a coalition of left-wing, far-left and green political parties led by Jean-Luc Melenchon, came in second with 149 seats planned. The ardent Mr. Melenchon was triumphant, attacking Mr. Macron.
“It’s a totally unexpected situation, absolutely unprecedented, the defeat of the presidential party is total,” he said after the results began to arrive. “They wanted to avoid defeat at the expense of dishonor. Tonight they have both defeat and dishonor.”
But it was the far-right National Rally party Marine Le Pen that rose the most in the election, winning around 85 seats or 15 per cent of the 577-seat national assembly, a dramatic turn of fortune in from 2017, when he managed to win. only eight seats. The performance was the best for the French far-right movement founded by Mrs Le Pen’s father, Jean-Marie, since it was founded four decades ago.
“The national rally number is something no one saw coming,” Lea Chamboncel, a French political journalist and podcaster, said in an interview. “It’s a bad surprise, a very bad surprise.”
Macron addresses voters before leaving for Ukraine on Tuesday
(AP)
The traditional center-right occupied the fourth position, winning about 76 seats, below the 130 of 2017. The Minister of the Interior was still calculating the final figures.
Sunday’s parliamentary elections may have little direct or immediate impact beyond France. Macron defeated Le Pen to win a second five-year term in April. Issues of foreign policy, national security and European affairs remain deeply entrenched within the presidency, and parliament plays much less of a role than in other Western democracies.
But to attract independent lawmakers from other fields and gather a majority on domestic issues, Macron may have to give way to hot issues that do have an impact abroad, such as military support in Ukraine, trade negotiations with the United Kingdom or expansion of the European Union.
Although French voters on the left and right rallied to vote for Macron to defeat Le Pen in April, Sunday’s election brought some disturbing messages to the president and his centrist allies.
“It’s far from what we expected,” Public Accounts Minister Gabriel Attal said in an interview with BFMTV.
Among those who lost their seats was Macron’s Ecological Transition Minister Amelie de Montchalin, who was defeated by leftist Jerome Guedj in Essonne, a constituency 48 km (30 miles) south of Paris. Christophe Castaner, a former interior minister under Macron, was also beaten by a left-wing candidate.
“Voters are not happy with Macron, that’s for sure,” said Chamboncel, author of a book calling for more women in politics. “It was a half-term election for him and he lost.”
Journalists and supporters watch Marine Le Pen deliver a speech on television after the results of the second round of French legislative elections
(EPA)
Mr. Melenchon managed to revive the fate of the long-dying French left to attract a new generation of young voters and candidates to the arena, many of them women and of marginalized immigrant origin. But despite the joy of Macron’s performance, the left also faced some moments of reflection. Fabian Rousel, a prominent leftist, barely won a victory over a far-right candidate in a northern constituency on the Belgian border.
Le Pen reinvented his father’s political movement to make it more pleasing to center-right voters. But he remains strongly anti-immigrant and anti-European. He is also in financial debt to Kremlin-linked banks.
The size of Ms. Le Pen’s parliamentary bloc crosses a number of legislative hurdles that will allow her to introduce, for example, censorship measures and raise issues before the constitutional court.
Mrs. Le Pen, radiant with joy among a crowd of fans after winning her seat on the second lap, promised changes.
“The new faces you are about to discover are the vanguard of this political elite who will take responsibility for the country when Macron’s adventure is over,” he said amid applause and applause. “We will continue the work to unite the French people in a great popular movement.”