When the France election ended on Sunday (June 19), the Emmanuel Macron party lost its majority in parliament, only two months after he was elected for the second term of office as President of France.
The poll has predicted the difficult struggle for the coalition of the Macron central parties called Ensemble, but it is still expected to win more than half of the seats, especially after he became the first French president to win the re-election in nearly 20 years.
But the results have thrown the huge assembly, where the coalition of the left parties named Nupes, and UDC, the coalition of the right-wing parties, both have made a prominent profit. The results have made the way forward for politics in the country uncertain when Europe faces serious inflation and energy security problems in the midst of war in Ukraine, and re -thinking of the role of the EU in Europe.
Selection
Presidential and legislative elections are held separately in France. The latter was held to elect members of the National Assembly, 577 members of the Low Parliamentary Council in the country. The selection is direct, which means people in each regional election to directly choose their representatives.
The presidential election is also direct; The reason why changes in power dynamics are so fast after Macron’s re -election in April surprised several people. French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire called the results as “democratic surprises”.
Although the Macron coalition is still the largest in the National Assembly with 245 seats, it is far from the majority sign of 289. This means he will need support from the alliance and other parties to pass his policy. The government is aware of this – Le Maire said if the support from others is lacking, “This will block our capacity to reform and protect France”. Some people suggest that if Macron feels impossible to pursue his agenda, he can call the SNAP election.
In two months since the Macron election, increasing inflation has become a major concern for voters, but apathetic voters and abstains are also seen. The percentage of voting is only around 46%, the BBC reports, which means that more than half of the voters do not use their franchise.
Straight ahead
Five main alliances, including the President himself, are the prominent part of the legislative mixture. The biggest alliance is led by La République Right Middle! Party (Lrem), which was founded by Macron in 2016. closeness to the EU and Economic Liberalism is part of its core agenda.
The second largest alliance is the ecological left wing and the people of People’s Union (NUPES) led by Jean-Luc Mélenchon, a strong critic of the President. He could not support the Macron Liberal Economic Policy – So, while Macron wanted to increase retirement age to 65 years out of 62 at this time, Mélenchon wanted to reduce it to 60.
Reports in the European media suggested that Macron would most likely reach Les Republicans (LR), another party that had similarities with Lrem.
Marine Le Pen, who lost to Macron in the presidential election in April, also saw success, with her party sending 89 candidates-in the most history of 50-year-to the Low Parliament Assembly.
Election and Europe
The Mélenchon Alliance is now the second largest block in parliament, and he has said in the past that given the size of the French economy, it can negotiate successfully not to follow the EU orders if their interests are compromised, Reuters report.
“France is influential in Europe. 18% of the European economy. This is not the Greek situation (Alexis) Tsipras who negotiated with 2% of the European economy, “Adrien Quentennens, a senior member of the Mélenchon Party, told Franceinfo Radio. Tsipras, now the opposition leader in Greece, is the Prime Minister from 2015 to 2019, and signs the contract Bailout with lenders involving hard savings steps.
There may be no significant changes in the position taken by France in connection with the war in Ukraine, such as Macron, Le Pen, and Mélenchon, all have expressed objections to the US -led Western coalition strategy to isolate Russia.
However, the existence of bold centric, left, and hard right members in the low assembly will mean Macron will face difficulties in building consensus on various divisive problems.