After the surprise results of the second round of early legislative elections, which significantly slowed the progress of the National Rally, France is looking for a parliamentary majority to govern. A headache for the union of the left, fragile despite its first place, and a Macronie in decline.
Key information to remember
⇒ Gabriel Attal will resign this Monday morning
⇒ Clémentine Autain will not sit in the “insoumis” group in the National Assembly
⇒ The withdrawals had a significant impact on the RN
Marine Tondelier: “A good Prime Minister must calm the country”
Following the success of the left, which came out on top in the legislative elections on Sunday but did not obtain an absolute majority, Emmanuel Macron “should officially call on the New Popular Front today to give him the name of a Prime Minister”, said the head of the Ecologists, Marine Tondelier, this morning.
“Will he do it? Will he not do it? As this president is always full of surprises, we will see, but that is the institutional logic,” she said. on RTL. As before the vote, she stressed that “a good Prime Minister must calm the country (and) unite in his own camp” and that consequently it was “not going to be Jean-Luc Mélenchon”.
Clémentine Autain will not sit with the “insoumis” in the National Assembly
Seine-Saint-Denis MP Clémentine Autain announced on LCI on Sunday evening that she would not be sitting in the La France insoumise (LFI) group in the National Assembly. “I have understood that I am no longer part of the group,” the MP noted, based on a count of LFI MPs elected in the first round, carried out by Jean-Luc Mélenchon on June 30.
Still affirming “wanting to get out of fratricidal wars”, She announced that she would sit alongside the “purged”, Danielle Simonnet, Hendrik Davi and Alexis Corbière, who had not obtained the investiture of Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s party, but were re-elected. Raquel Garrido, also ousted by the LFI, was not re-elected in Seine-Saint-Denis.
The weight of withdrawals against the RN
The party of Jordan Bardella and Marine Le Pen and their allies were leading in the first round in 258 of the 501 constituencies still in play on Sunday.
They were ultimately defeated in 154 of them, two-thirds (109) in constituencies where there was a withdrawal between the two rounds. Thus, in the 1st constituency of the Somme, the left-wing MP François Ruffin was able to make up the deficit against his RN competitor thanks to the withdrawal of the Macronist candidate. A similar scenario for the former Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne who was thus able to keep her seat in the 6th constituency of Calvados.
Strong progression of the RN along the Mediterranean arc
As in 2022, the RN won all the seats in the Pyrénées-Orientales (4) and Aude (3). In the Gard, the RN went from four to five deputies out of a total of six. The remaining constituency went to an LR, supported by Jordan Bardella’s party, as part of the agreement with the Republicans. In Hérault, the RN gained three seats to the detriment of the Macronists, one of these seats also going to an LR candidate supported by the RN.
Further east, in 2022, in Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, the National Rally (RN), with its Ciottist allies, has made further progress, with 30 seats (compared to 22 in 2022), certainly failing to achieve a grand slam in the Var (7 out of 8) and in the Vaucluse (4 out of 5), but now establishing itself in urban strongholds such as Aix-en-Provence or Marseille.
Gabriel Attal will resign this Monday morning
Three weeks before the Paris Olympic Games, outgoing Prime Minister Gabriel Attal is due to hand in his resignation to Emmanuel Macron this morning, even though he has said he is prepared to stay at Matignon “as long as duty demands” in the context of the Olympic Games.
The position of the President of the Republic is also highly anticipated, because he is the one who has the power to appoint the Prime Minister.
Lula hails victory “against extremism”
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Sunday hailed the triumph “against extremism” and the “maturity of political forces” in France after the left held back the far right in legislative elections. “Very happy with the demonstration of greatness and maturity of the political forces of France that have united against extremism,” the leftist leader said on the social network X.
Lula, who ruled Brazil from 2003 to 2010 before returning to power in 2023, said the result in France and Labour’s victory in the UK this week “reinforce the importance of dialogue between progressive segments to defend democracy and social justice.”