An absolute majority soaring, two protest parties established as the first opposition groups, a defeated President of the National Assembly… On the evening of the second round of the legislative elections, the logic of the majority vote cracked on all sides under pressure from the abstention and an erratic campaign between showmanship and invective. Unprecedented thing under the Ve Republic and even more so since 2002 and the reform of the electoral calendar, the Hemicycle will embody the complexity of a fragmented political landscape.
Together ! won 246 seats, the New People’s Social and Ecological Union (Nupes), 142, the National Rally (RN), 89, the Les Républicains party and the Union of Democrats and Independents (UDI), 64, the left excluding Nupes, 13 The deputies elected on Sunday June 19 will officially begin their mandate on Wednesday, before the opening of the XVIe legislature, Tuesday, June 28.
Between these two deadlines, seven days are allocated to the elected representatives of the previous mandate to empty their offices and let the new ones settle in the Palais-Bourbon. Seven days which will not be too much for the various formations, which will have to take their marks in this new political and parliamentary configuration. What position vis-à-vis the relative majority of Emmanuel Macron? What a future for electoral alliances like Together! or Nupes? Which presidency for the National Assembly and the different parliamentary groups?
The negotiations that will take place this week around the composition of these groups made official on June 28 constitute the ultimate showdown – after this “third round” – between the majority and its opposition. Under the previous mandate, the Hemicycle had up to ten parliamentary groups due to internal dissension within La République en Marche (LRM), which had ended up losing an absolute majority – dropping from 314 deputies to 266 deputies at the end of the legislature.
Organizational challenges
This fateful number of ten entities in the National Assembly could be reached again and would pose significant organizational challenges for the institution. Of the ten potential parliamentary groups, seven would be opposition, three of which – LR, La France insoumise (LFI), and the RN – would be able to table a motion of censure to overthrow the government (which requires 58 initials) and to have recourse to a referral to the Constitutional Council after the examination of a text (60 signatures minimum).
Who says oppositions under the Ve Republic says an influx of amendments and sustained legislative work for the officials of the National Assembly, who will have to deal with abundant requests from the Nupes, where, during the previous legislature, the seventeen LFI deputies had used and sometimes abused the avalanches of amendments to coerce their opponents.
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