The camp of re-elected President Emmanuel Macron has suffered losses in the parliamentary elections and is only on par with the Left Alliance. The right to vote benefits the Macron camp, but the absolute majority is in question.
After the first round of the French parliamentary elections, the absolute majority of President Emmanuel Macron’s Ensemble voter alliance is not secured. According to estimates by several election research institutes, his party and its allies will have between 255 and 310 seats on Sunday. 289 seats are needed for an absolute majority.
In terms of votes, Macron’s alliance is almost level with Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s left-green alliance Nupes. According to projections, both come to about 25 to 26 percent of the votes. However, first-past-the-post system favors the strongest electoral alliance when it comes to the allocation of seats in parliament.
France: “For the first time, re-elected president misses majority”
“For the first time, a re-elected president does not achieve a majority in the general election,” Mélenchon commented on the election result: “The truth is that the presidential party was beaten and defeated in the first round.” He linked his statement with an election call for the second ballot next Sunday: “In light of this result and the extraordinary opportunity it represents for our personal lives and the future of our common homeland, I call on our people to pour out next Sunday to of course definitively rejecting the fateful intentions of the majority of Mr. Macron.”
The right-wing populist Marine Le Pen claims to be entering the run-off election next Sunday in her constituency in Hénin-Beaumont. She described her party’s performance as an “immense victory”. “It is important that Emmanuel Macron does not have an absolute majority, which he will abuse to use his self-centered and brutal methods,” said Le Pen on Sunday evening, referring to the president’s camp. “The second round gives us the opportunity to send a very large group of patriotic MPs to the National Assembly.”
Borne: Only a center alliance can form a majority
French Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne, on the other hand, sees the political opponents of the center alliance as having no chance of gaining a majority after the first round of the parliamentary elections. “We are the only political force that is able to get a majority in the National Assembly,” said Borne on Sunday evening. The prime minister also indirectly warned of a further strengthening of the left. “We cannot take the risk of instability.” You and the Central Alliance, on the other hand, stand for coherence and would leave no stone unturned in the fight against extremes.
Early projections put the president’s centre-camp at 25.2 to 25.6 percent, roughly on a par with the left-wing alliance at 25.2 to 26.1 percent. When it comes to the allocation of seats after the second round of voting, however, forecasts assume that the camp of the liberal president will have a clear majority. Voter turnout is estimated at around 53 percent.
