After the legislative elections, we explain why the negotiations on the groups in the National Assembly are so crucial

“Things are changing by the hour. They’re all talking about everything.”says the collaborator of an influential parliamentarian. Two days after the early legislative elections delivered their verdict, Newly elected MPs take their places in the National Assembly on Tuesday, July 9. Before this hemicycle which emerged from the ballot boxes without an absolute majority and fragmented into three blocs, “The hardest part begins”summarizes Erwan Balanant, MoDem MP re-elected in Finistère. In the corridors of the Palais-Bourbon, negotiations are intense. This old house will have to be made to work in an absolutely unprecedented context where the presidential camp has lost its relative majority and where the left, which came in first, remains far from the 289 seats needed to implement its programme without risking being censored.

In this new political landscape, the ushers of the Palais-Bourbon are there to mark out the path of the newly elected representatives. For the 577 deputies of this 17th legislature, the first thing to do after collecting their badge and their parliamentary briefcase is to form political groups depending on their partisan proximity.

This is the heart of the parliamentary game: composed of at least 15 members, a political group allows questions to be asked of the government, seats to be divided up in committees or even to request suspensions of the session. The collaborators at its disposal also allow it to operate more smoothly, by drafting notes and amendments and coordinating the work of the deputies. Only political groups also participate in the Conference of Presidentswhich meets to examine the order of business of the Assembly, via the group presidents, elected by their members.

The groups of the new legislature will not be similar to what they were before the dissolution. Firstly because some political forces, such as the National Rally or the Socialist Party, have progressed, while others have declined, like Renaissance or the MoDem. Some re-elected deputies could also decide to change groups. This is the case of François Ruffin, Clémentine Autain, Alexis Corbière or Danielle Simonnet, “purged” from La France insoumise. Several of them have expressed to André Chassaigne and Cyrielle Chatelain, respectively former presidents of the communist and environmentalist groups, their desire to form a common group.

The map of the left in the Assembly was not yet fixed, Tuesday afternoon. The battle is still raging between the socialists and the rebellious, each of whom aims to form the largest group in their camp. According to the rules enacted since Sunday, this would allow them to designate the Prime Minister to propose to Emmanuel Macron. Less numerous, the Ecologists-EELV are highlighting their central position on the left to play a key role. The communists, for their part, assure that they will always have a group. “We are on a basis of nine PCF deputies and eight, nine overseas”assured André Chassaigne on Tuesday morning. Finally, the Liot deputies, who before the legislative elections had around fifteen independent parliamentarians, were courted, but the group assures that it will “remain a transpartisan group”.

On the presidential camp side, things are not any simpler. Renaissance, which has lost more than sixty deputies, could once again see a few seats slip away, because of parliamentarians who would join other groups. According to information from franceinfo, two deputies elected under the Renaissance label will come to swell the ranks of the ally Horizons. The group of Edouard Philippe’s party must also count on the reinforcement of two new entrants, Sylvain Berrios and Thomas Lam, elected respectively in Val-de-Marne and Hauts-de-Seine. “We should meet around thirty”says a party executive, the political weight of Horizons in the Assembly before the dissolution.

The left wing of Renaissance is also tempted by the creation of its own space, with the former president of the Laws Commission, Sacha Houlié, at the helm. In a message sent to Renaissance deputies and consulted by franceinfohe calls for the formation of a new group “social democrat” Who “meets our values”. “The more of us there are, the stronger we will be“, he wrote to them.

“At the moment we are at the stage of beginning discussions. [pour la création d’un groupe].”

The entourage of Sacha Houlié (Renaissance)

to franceinfo

“I’m open” to join this new group, confides former minister Stéphane Travert in the Salle des Quatre Colonnes, a meeting place for elected officials and journalists. Re-elected in the Manche, he is one of the seven deputies of Territoires de progrès, the current of former Minister of Labor Olivier Dussopt, who survived the dissolution. There may be new things to createthe MP continues. Union must always be given priority [du camp présidentiel] but if it is not possible, we must take responsibility.” The centrist group of the MoDem, which has gone from 50 deputies to 34, should not move much, except for the presidency. If Jean-Paul Mattei “has every intention of being a candidate” Other contenders could also be in the running to succeed him.

The right also appears scattered like a puzzle. Eric Ciotti, the contested president of LR, and architect of an electoral alliance with the National Rally, will create his own group, called A droitewith 17 deputies. On the Republican side, things are looking complex between the different stables. According to an internal party count obtained by franceinfoLR and its allies must form a group of 56 deputies: 39 elected under the LR label, one elected UDI and 16 elected various right.

But, at the end of the polls, there were 66 of them counted in the Les Républicains et alliés bloc, which leaves around ten elected officials in the wild. Will Aurélien Pradié, MP for Lot and former member of the LR group, create a new group, he who stood under the label of his micro-party “Du courage”? “In my opinion, there will no longer be a Les Républicains group,” he assured on Tuesday morningspeaking of“an old story”.

On the far right, Marine Le Pen’s camp, without her allies, obtained 126 seats, 38 more than in the previous legislature. The RN should constitute the largest number of seats in the chamber. Only Daniel Grenon, re-elected in Yonne, could be excluded from the group. Questioned on BFMTV on Wednesday, the party’s president, Jordan Bardella, assured that the deputy would not sit there. A sanction wanted by the RN leader in reaction to the candidate’s statement on the “Maghrebis” Who “have no place in high places”. Ultimately, the number of groups could therefore exceed ten, the previous record dating from the last legislature, between 2022 and 2024.

When it is formed and declares its existence in the National Assembly, each parliamentary group can also say whether it is in the opposition or the majority. Belonging to the opposition gives it certain rights, such as the presidency of the very strategic finance committee for one of the political parties. This choice between majority and opposition is today more complicated than usual: the left has a very small relative majority and the government of the presidential camp is still in place. Everything therefore remains very vague at the Palais-Bourbon: “We don’t know if we will sit in the opposition or the majority”explains Erwan Balanant.

However, at the Elysée, everyone is waiting for the appearance of the new hemicycle. “Everything will depend on the composition of the groups”assures an advisor to the executive. As early as Sunday evening, Emmanuel Macron had made it known that he was waiting for the “structuring” of the new Assembly in order to determine who he would call upon to form a new government. To form themselves, the political groups have until July 17, the date of the opening of the 17th legislature and the election of the president of the Assembly.