2024-07-08 19:31:33
PARIS. A dramatic turn of events in France: the seats missing from Marine Le Pen’s absolute majority were being counted and instead it is the left that has sensationally triumphed, with the leader of La France Insoumise, Jean-Luc Mélenchonto claim the government: “We are ready, Macron must recognize defeat, he has the duty to call the New Popular Front to govern”.
Emmanuel Macron and its outgoing majority does not collapse, as had been predicted, but even arrives in front of the far right of the Rassemblement National of The penthe great defeat this evening after the desistance pact signed in recent days against her.
The surprise is total, the left is still missing about 90 seats for an absolute majority, so the search for a coalition remains fully current. The first reaction from the Elysée was the vindication by Macron, who for weeks has been under fire from all sides, of his choice to dissolve the Assemblée Nationale: “The turnout – at a record level of 67% – shows that the French had to express themselves”. Immediately after, the president’s entourage called for “prudence”, since the results do not guarantee the possibility of creating “a coherent coalition”.
The New Popular Front would have between 180 and 215 seats, far from the 289 seats needed for an absolute majority. And Macron’s center bloc, at 150-180, will not form any alliance that includes Mélenchon and the Mélenchonians.
“This is the question – insists the Elysée – whether a coherent coalition is possible to reach 289 deputies”. Then, an official source from the Elysée clarified that Macron “will wait for the new National Assembly to be structured to take the necessary decisions. The president, in his role as guarantor of the institutions, will ensure that the sovereign choice of the French is respected”.
The hypotheses that are being improvised in these hours are a government of national union oriented towards the center, with the reformists of the gauche and the Republicains, who obtained – without Eric Ciotti who went over to Marine Le Pen – a flattering result, with over 60 seats. While 20 days of debate now seem like a memory – as well as the proclamations of Le Pen and Jordan Bardella who only 48 hours ago were dictating their objectives in foreign policy, on Ukraine, or in economic and social policy, on immigration – the gauche is already showing all its profound differences. Thundering in these first hours of comments are the winners of La France Insoumise, the radical left that by now was almost certain to remain outside of any agreement, with Mélenchon isolated in the opposition.
From Manon Aubry to Mathilde Panot to Manuel Bompard, Mélenchon’s colonels are proclaiming an increase in the minimum wage and a 60-year retirement age, calling for Prime Minister Attal’s immediate resignation. But the figures who will probably have a voice in the coming days are also making their way in the attempt to negotiate a coalition with the center and the moderate right, the only conceivable solution for the government. “Tonight we are in the lead,” said Raphaël Glucksmann, who has dragged the Socialist Party up even further, “but faced with a divided National Assembly we must behave like adults. We must talk, we must discuss, we must dialogue,” he insisted, stressing that “the heart of power has been transferred to the National Assembly, a change in political culture is necessary.”
While the left-wing people spontaneously flocked to the Place de la République in Paris to celebrate a victory that was as beautiful as it was unexpected, it was a bad blow for Marine Le Pen. After a few spokespeople, Jordan Bardella appeared on the stage at the headquarters, looking grim for the first time. He immediately denounced the “unnatural alliances” between Macron’s supporters and the left, which according to him had caused the defeat of his party: “Unfortunately,” he said, “the dishonorable alliance and the small electoral agreements between Macron and Attal with the far left deprive” voters of a Rassemblement government and “throw France into the arms of Mélenchon.”
Then he paid homage, with little conviction and failing to smile, “to the dynamic enjoyed by the RN that brought it to the top in the first round” and still allows it to obtain a historic number of deputies, between 120 and 150. A small consolation tonight, for a party that was uncertain between triumph and simple victory. The glass ceiling that prevents the far right from governing France is today more solid than ever.
(photo Ansa Epa)
2024-07-08 19:31:33