France faced a hung parliament and difficult negotiations starting Monday to form a government, after a surprise left-wing surge blocked Marine Le Pen’s quest to bring the far right to power.
The leftist New Popular Front (NFP) emerged as the dominant force in the National Assembly after Sunday’s election, but with no single group securing a working majority the possibilities include the NFP forming a minority government or the building of a broad, unwieldy coalition.
The result delivered a blow to President Emmanuel Macron and leaves the euro zone’s second largest economy in limbo, heralding a period of political instability just weeks before Paris hosts the Olympic Games.
Macron ended up with a fragmented parliament, in what is set to weaken France’s role in the European Union and further afield, and make it hard for anyone to push through a domestic agenda.
The left won 182 seats, Macron’s centrist alliance 168 and Le Pen’s National Rally (RN) and allies 143, Interior Ministry data cited by Le Monde newspaper showed.
“According to the logic of our institutions, Emmanuel Macron should today officially invite the New Popular Front to nominate a prime minister,” said Green leader Marine Tondelier, one of a number of NFP figures seen as potential candidates for the post.
“Will he or won’t he? As this president is always full of surprises, we’ll see,” she said on RTL radio.
Prime Minister Gabriel Attal said he would tender his resignation on Monday, but it was not clear whether the president would accept it immediately, given the daunting task ahead to form a government. Attal said he would be willing to stay on in a caretaker role.
Leaders from the NFP met overnight for first talks on how to proceed, but in media interviews on Monday they gave little sense of direction.
Tondelier said on France Inter radio the prime minister could be someone from the hard-left France Unbowed party, the Greens or the Socialists, the three largest parties in the alliance.
Olivier Faure, the Socialist leader, said on France Info radio that he expected the parties to agree on a plan this week, but sidestepped a question on whether the NFP would be prepared to negotiate a deal with Macron’s centrist camp.
Raphael Glucksmann, a prominent moderate who led the leftist ticket in last month’s European elections, said on Sunday that a hung parliament required openness for dialogue.
But France Unbowed’s firebrand leader Jean-Luc Melenchon, one of the most divisive figures in French politics, explicitly ruled out any deal with centrists on Sunday, and on Monday his ally Eric Bompard was sounding uncompromising.Reuters
