French President Emmanuel Macron, who lost an absolute majority in the National Assembly, said on Friday he was determined to build “either a coalition” or “agreements” on the texts of laws, as in Germany or Italy, noting that this was a “terribly commonplace situation at European level”.
“I believe that’s what Italy and Germany are doing and that’s what we will do with all the governing parties, to be able to build either a coalition or [des] agreements on texts to move forward on a clear agenda”, he declared after a European summit in Brussels.
Five days after the second round of legislative elections, France is plunged into uncertainty, the liberal centrist coalition of Mr. Macron, who was re-elected in April, having only a relative majority of 245 seats out of the 577 that counts the National Assembly, far from the absolute majority of 289.
The new deal reshuffles the cards in a country unaccustomed to coalitions and forces the president to find alliances. The French head of state, however, endeavored to put this situation into perspective, noting that it was the common lot of many European countries.
“France is in a parliamentary situation which it knew moreover in 1988 […] but [qui] is especially horribly commonplace at European level”, he said, noting that out of 27 Member States of the European Union, “twenty” have coalition governments, “some with five, six, seven partners” , and others from “minority governments”.
Many European countries, where the parliamentary system is predominant, are in fact accustomed to having leaders with only a relative majority in Parliament, such as Germany, Italy, Spain or even Sweden.
In Germany, for example, the current government of Chancellor Olaf Scholz is a team of social democratic, liberal and green parties.
In France, the idea of a government of national unity or a coalition of governments has been rejected by the opposition on the right and on the left, suggesting strong tensions at the time of the new legislature, which starts next Tuesday. . Among the priorities is the adoption this summer of emergency measures in the face of soaring inflation.
President Macron also rejected any idea of a loss of leadership for Europe due to the political situation in France, one of the founding countries and pillar of the European Union.
“I think Europe has leadership,” he said, even believing that this need for dialogue and compromise “strengthens” him. “It just gives us more work.”