French legislative | Two heads are better than one

Re-elected for a second term at the end of April, the French President, Emmanuel Macron, was unable to obtain an absolute majority in the National Assembly during the legislative elections, the second round of which took place on June 19. Such a situation is not unprecedented in the history of the V^e Republic. It is not a calamity heralding an “ungovernable” France condemned to immobility. On the contrary, it is possible to see in it an opportunity to revitalize and re-legitimize political debate in a representative democracy.

Julien Tourreille
Researcher in residence at the Raoul-Dandurand Chair in Strategic and Diplomatic Studies at UQAM

A poor performance to qualify

A constitutional reform adopted in 2000 reduced the presidential term from seven to five years. It was also accompanied, if not above all, by a change in the electoral calendar placing the election of deputies to the National Assembly (also elected for five years) in the wake of the presidential election. This resulted in an increased presidentialization of French political life. Since 2002, in fact, the candidates reaching the Élysée had all succeeded in taking advantage of the momentum of their victory to obtain in the wake of absolute majorities (i.e. at least 289 elected) within the lower house of Parliament.

From this perspective, that President Macron has to settle for a relative majority is obviously a poor performance. The 245 seats gleaned last Sunday by the movement Together! pale in comparison to the 350 conquered in June 2017. However, this is not a “thrashing” or a “rout”, as has often been claimed over the past week. On the one hand, the party that supports the president remains the most important in the National Assembly. On the other hand, the Constitution of the V^e République is flexible enough that this configuration of power is not inevitably synonymous with the paralysis of political institutions. Let us recall, for example, that de Gaulle himself had to deal with relative majorities from 1958 to 1967.

If this election is not in itself catastrophic for the President of the Republic, two major observations are essential. First, the wide variety of parties with the 15 elected members needed to create a parliamentary group in the National Assembly makes the forum where popular sovereignty is expressed more representative of the different political sensitivities that shape the country. Secondly, by refusing full powers to a president re-elected after having exercised a first full mandate, a first since 1958, the voters clearly wanted to impose limits, establish competition, which is far from being unhealthy in a democracy.

A few months ago, Emmanuel Macron said he wanted to change his way of governing by being less vertical, some would say authoritarian, and more attentive. Circumstances now compel him to make this aspiration a reality.

A revaluation of the role of prime minister

For this, he cannot act alone. Two players will prove crucial in the months to come. On the one hand, while the president should be led to focus on the many foreign policy issues that fall within the “reserved domain” of the presidency, Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne will have to fully play her role as second head of the executive. to build majorities in the National Assembly on a case-by-case basis. This will mean limiting ambitions for reform, even abandoning some of them, but a parliament that parleys will not prevent a government from governing. However, it will be a major challenge for her after the first very lackluster weeks at Matignon. On the other, the Les Républicains party which, even if it is only the fourth in importance with 61 elected, appears to be the most natural political ally for the government of President Macron. After the rout of the presidential election, this position of “Kingmaker” gives him an importance perhaps unexpected, but certainly capital. It is thus the Republican right, not the extremes of Mélenchon or Le Pen, that will be able to dictate the successes or failures of Macron’s second term.

The presidential and legislative elections of this year 2022 open up new political perspectives in France. Admittedly, the weak culture of compromise, passivity, the too frequent lack of diligence among parliamentarians and the determination of the losers to claim victory and to delegitimize the winners of the polls are all elements that may give rise to fears of a certain chaos . By reappointing the president while imposing a certain competition for power, the voters demonstrate that the V^e Republic can adapt very well to the requirements of a healthy democratic life. This will be able to fully express itself in an Assembly finally representative of the vast majority of political sensitivities that have been at the heart of public debate for years. It is a truth which can disturb if one considers the result obtained by the antisystem parties. It is possibly at this price that the French will once again take an interest in public affairs after having turned away from it for too long, as evidenced by the record abstention rate (53%) in the second round of these legislative elections.