French parliamentary elections: Crushing defeat for Macron as he loses majority

Just about two months after Emmanuel Macron was re-elected as the president of France, he has lost his majority in the French National Assembly after a rather impressive performance by a left alliance and the far right. Macron’s coalition, though emerged as the largest party in parliamentary elections, failed to maintain its five years long majority by falling short of dozens of seats.

The coalition will now enter the phase of negotiations to land a deal with other parties on the right.

A gain for left wing alliance

The parliamentary elections saw big leads made by the new left wing alliance towards becoming the main opposition. On the other hand, Marine Le Pen led right wing marked its best ever legislative performance. “This situation constitutes a risk for our country, given the challenges that we have to confront,” Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne said in a televised statement Sunday, vowing: “We will work from tomorrow to build a working majority.”

A blow to Macron’s presidential win

The outcome of parliamentary elections is a big blow to Macron’s presidential win in April when he had defeated the far right to become first French president to secure a second term in office in two decades. “It’s a turning point for his image of invincibility,” said Bruno Cautres, a researcher at the Centre for Political Research of Sciences Po.

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“The new left-wing coalition NUPES under 70-year-old hard-left figurehead Jean-Luc Melenchon won 135 seats,” according to an AFP count based on the results published by the ministry. Melenchon has called the results as “above all an electoral failure” for Macron. Addressing his supporters in Paris, Melenchon said, “The rout of the presidential party is total and there will be no majority in parliament”.

Ministers who faced defeat

The ministers who lost their seats included Health Minister Brigitte Bourguignon, who lost by just 56 votes to her far right opponent. Green Transition Minister Amélie de Montchalin also faced a defeat. Two other close allies to Macron, parliament speaker Richard Ferrand and former interior minister Christophe Castaner, also faced defeat in the elections.