Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne recognized it herself on Sunday evening: the results of the legislative elections are creating a “unprecedented situation” likely to represent “a risk” for France. According to the count of the newspaper Le Monde, the presidential camp obtained 246 seats, very far from the absolute majority (289), the left alliance Nupes 142, the National Rally 89 and Les Républicains-UDI 64.
“French politics began its journey on Sunday to a destination it has not known for decades”worries the Paris correspondent of the center-left Catalan daily The newspaper. An opinion shared by his colleague fromThe world : “France is venturing into unknown territory and full of uncertainties”.
Barely two months after his election, Emmanuel Macron was on Sunday evening “a very weakened president, on the edge of the abyss of an ungovernable France, with a hostile Parliament divided into three blocks, two of which are at the extremes”, continues the center-right Madrid daily. It is therefore “a mandate very different from the first” who awaits the Head of State, “because to enforce his program, he will have to forge alliances, negotiate, and give in”.
“The quinquennium which opens will be very complicated”warns Gilles Ivaldi, researcher in political science, in the columns of the Temps. “The polarization that emerges from the ballot box forms three camps that clash and that everything opposes. Europe, economy, immigration, security, they don’t agree on anything”.
For a country that is facing several crises and that needs consensus, we will have a political life structured by three blocks that nothing brings together, which augurs well for quite troubled times.
“France is going to be very difficult to govern”adds the BBC. British broadcasting underlines the weight of the extremes, on the left as on the right, which range “encircle” the government and “do everything possible to prevent the passage of new reforms, such as pensions”. In addition, “carried by their new legitimacy, they will not hesitate to call on the streets when they need it”.
Faced with a fully reassembled Nupes and National Rally, and Republicans already divided on the strategy to adopt vis-à-vis the presidential majority, Emmanuel Macron can hardly hope for a stable alliance, notes the European edition of Politico. “It’s more likely to be piecemeal collaborations, meaning endless negotiations over bills, and shaky deals”provides the site.
It’s a scenario “totally unprecedented for the political and institutional tradition of the French presidential regime, and which puts everything at stake: the liberal reforms but also the international position of France, on Europe and on the war in Ukraine”observe The print. “France’s European and international position is becoming much more uncertain”.
Anti-European Assembly
Le Washington Post also notices that the “snub” suffered by Emmanuel Macron will “complicate” his presidency “at a time when Europe is facing fundamental challenges, brought about by the war in Ukraine”.
“Worrying, the result of these legislative elections is also worrying for Europe”insists The evening. “With France waking up ungovernable, it is the only nuclear power in the Union that is weakened. And we obviously wonder how France will position itself in the current major crises (the war in Ukraine, the economic recovery plan, the environmental crisis) with such a divided Assembly which has probably never been so anti-European”.
In tune with daily life in Brussels, The Free Belgium evokes a “sad evening for Europe”. “Macron’s France, in the geostrategic context that we know, should have played a leading role with Germany in facing the gigantic challenges that the invasion of Ukraine by Russia poses to Europeans (defence, transition energy, etc). Here is the President now weakened even before having really started”.