French President Emmanuel Macron is leaving the first round of the legislative elections this Sunday (12), with no guarantee that he will be able to run the country with an absolute majority in the National Assembly for the next five years. His government program, marked by the good results of the Left alliance and the good performance of the far right, is forcing the head of state to wait until next Sunday’s runoff to find out what room for maneuver he will have during his tenure.
The first fear of Juntos!, a coalition formed by the president’s allies, was the number of votes won by NUPES, a group made up of most of the country’s left-wing parties. According to preliminary results, the alliance, led by the leader of the radical left, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, received between 25% and 26.2% of the vote, compared with 25% to 25.8% of Macron’s group. According to Mélenchon, “the presidential party was defeated.”
Then the far-right National Assembly, prepared by Marine Le Pen, garnered almost 20% of the votes. As a result, Le Pen’s party, which has traditionally struggled in legislative elections due to its majority system, may surpass 15 MPs in the House, something that has not happened since 1986 and represents an increase of 13.2% over 2017. The candidate, who was defeated in the second round of the presidential election but won 55 percent in the dispute as an MP this Sunday, urged his supporters to mobilize “to send a key patriotic MP to the new National Assembly”.
This first phase of legislation confirms the reorganization of the French political establishment. According to estimates, Macron’s alliance, which should win at least 289 seats, could result in a balance between 255 and a maximum of 310 deputies.
‘French Hugo Chavez’ scares ruling party
This election, which comes less than two months after Emmanuel Macron’s re-election for president, aims to determine whether the centrist head of state will have a new parliamentary majority to implement his government program. After the second round of the legislative elections on June 19, the country will find out whether Macron has the full confidence of the French, whether he will be forced to negotiate with a relative majority, or whether he should lead the country. A “cohabitation” regime used in France when the head of government and the president have different political leanings.
According to preliminary results, this possible “coexistence” could happen between Macron’s centrists and the left, who for the first time in 25 years have managed to come together in a coalition. Ecologists, communists, socialists and the France Insubmissive (FI), a party of the radical left, competed in a united front led by Jean-Luc Mélenchon.
The coalition, called the New Ecological and Social People’s Union (NUPES), is headed by Mélenchon himself, the head of France Indomitable. The 70-year-old politician, who narrowly missed the second round of the presidential election after winning almost 22% of the vote in April, sees this legislative election as a rematch, which he considers a “third round” vote. Its purpose is to prevent Macron from implementing his liberal line program.
France already knows the terms, with a government and a president of different political leanings. The last “living together” took place between 1997 and 2002, when conservative president Jacques Chirac was forced to appoint socialist Lionel Jospin as prime minister.
Like Jospin, who led the Left Plural alliance in the 1997 legislative election, Mélenchon hopes to become the next head of government. But the idea of ”French Hugo Chávez”, nicknamed the head of the radical left, as prime minister worries the ruling party.
source: Noticias
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