Macronist Yaël Braun-Pivet has been re-elected president of the National Assembly, with the left, the main group in the French lower house, seeing its prospects of gaining power recede.
French President Emmanuel Macron’s camp has lost its majority in the assembly after his surprise decision to dissolve it ahead of the Olympics, followed by legislative elections that split the lower house into three blocs, all far from an absolute majority.
It took the outgoing president three rounds to regain her seat, thanks to an alliance sealed between centre-right MPs in favour of President Emmanuel Macron and those from the conservative right who withdrew their candidate Philippe Juvin.
After almost six hours of suspense, Mme Braun-Pivet was ultimately credited with 220 votes, against 207 for the communist André Chassaigne, the candidate of the New Popular Front, and 141 for Sébastien Chenu, who represented the extreme right.
Mr Chassaigne virulently denounced a vote “stolen” by an “unnatural alliance” between Macron’s party and the right, while the left came out on top in the second round of the legislative elections.
Sébastien Chenu denouncing a “victory of the schemes” between Les Républicains and the Macron camp.
The president of the radical left deputies [La France insoumise, LFI] Mathilde Panot had already expressed her indignation at “an anti-democratic coup”, since her camp had won the largest number of deputies in the early legislative elections of June 30 and July 7, decided by President Macron.
A “status quo” with Yaël Braun-Pivet would be “irresponsible”, the leader of the Green Party, Cyrielle Chatelain, told AFP.
But an agreement between the traditional right, which withdrew its candidate for the presidency of the Assembly, and Macron’s party put an end to the hopes of the left.
“We fully assume our responsibilities. This means preventing LFI and those who are causing chaos in the National Assembly from accessing the presidency of the Assembly,” justified Vincent Jeanbrun, spokesperson for the Republican Right group.
President Emmanuel Macron congratulated Yaël Braun-Pivet on her re-election, hailing her “republican responsibility”.
“All those who know you know that you will ensure that the plurality of opinions is respected and that the diversity of sensibilities is expressed,” the head of state declared on X.
The New Popular Front, an alliance of the socialist, communist, environmentalist and LFI parties set up just before the legislative elections to counter an announced victory of the extreme right, had not stopped displaying its divisions for ten days, to the great despair of its supporters.
Although the four parties have agreed on a name for the perch, they have not yet managed to agree on the identity of a possible future prime minister.
And the alliance between the Macronists and the right for the presidency of the Assembly could seem to indicate that their prospects of governing are fading.
“Everything but the left”
On Thursday, the New Popular Front found itself facing “anything but the left,” a Macronist source said.
“Sending a member of the NFP to the rostrum would send the signal that they could possibly make deals in the Assembly. However, we have been trying for ten days to explain that they are not able to govern,” explained Housing Minister Guillaume Kasbarian again early in the afternoon.
On Tuesday, Mr Macron accepted the resignation of Prime Minister Gabriel Attal’s government, as France enters the sensitive period of hosting the Olympic Games, which start on July 26, and then the Paralympics.
This resigning government, however, remains “in charge of current affairs”, with a limited political role, probably for several weeks, until the appointment of a new government.
Beyond the presidency of the Assembly, it is the entire political landscape which is struggling to settle down ten days after the legislative elections.
The deputies will tackle the distribution of other key positions on Friday. With divergent visions that suggest strong tensions around the places left to the RN.
The right, for its part, intends to profit from its aid to Macronie. “If we obtain positions of responsibility without being [dans] “The executive is a bit of a bingo for us. Our line is not to participate in a government,” assured a close friend of the president of the Republican Right group in the assembly, Laurent Wauquiez, on Thursday morning.