QFour months after the June legislative elections, we can better understand the meaning that the French wanted to give to this election with unprecedented results. The absence of an absolute majority granted to a President of the Republic who had just been re-elected was a first indication: the executive had to break with the verticality of the first five-year term and agree to better consider its opponents. The entry of 89 deputies from the National Rally into the Hemicycle sounded like a serious warning: the two-round majority ballot designed to marginalize the extremes had proved insufficient this time to block the far right.
The grouping of left-wing forces behind the “rebellious” Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who endorsed the idea that he could impose cohabitation on Emmanuel Macron at his hand, demonstrated the persistent discomfort of this camp vis-à-vis of the presidential reading of the Ve Republic. Finally, the fact that the deputies were on the whole poorly elected, with a national abstention rate of more than 50% in both rounds, showed the extent of the crisis in political representation.
What came out of the pot at the start of the parliamentary session in July was a catharsis. To get rid of the feeling of having been mistreated for years, the oppositions had a field day. They countered, contested, delayed, amended everything that could come from the government, taking care, however, not to completely block the machine. The text aimed at safeguarding the purchasing power of the French was voted, but after exhausting night sessions and numerous verbal one-ups, the palm of the challenge went to the deputies La France insoumise (LFI), determined to bring down the government as soon as the opportunity arises.
Round Effects
However, in this month of October when infinitely less consensual bills are on the agenda, such as the budget for 2023, the reform of unemployment insurance or the development of renewable energies, it seems that the expectation of public opinion is not exactly this: 53% of French people consider the opposition embodied by LFI to be too radical, according to the tenth wave of the “French Fractures” study carried out by Ipsos-Sopra Steria for The world, the Jean Jaurès Foundation and Cevipof. The request, by a very large majority, relates to the search for a compromise, it being up to the government and the opposition to take a step towards each other.
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