Preliminary election results and forecasts after the polls closed showed that Macron’s central Ensemble (Together) would fall far short of the 289 seats required for a straight majority in the assembly, winning about 230 seats. The left-green alliance formed by far-left politician Jean-Luc Mélenchon – the New Ecological and Social Popular Union (Nupes) – is set to become the main opposition party with about 150 seats. The far-right Rassemblement National of Marin Le Pen is the big surprise of the night and is projected to win almost 90 seats – more than 10 times more than in the last parliamentary elections of 2017. The conservative Les Républicains and its partners are given about 80, better than expected. If confirmed by the final results, the result means that Macron will need to reach agreements with other parties in the National Assembly to pass legislation for the next five years and his ministers will face a turbulent course in the parliamentary debates. “I am not going to hide the fact that these results, if confirmed, are far from what we expected,” Gabriel Atal, Macron’s minister of public accounts, told TF1. “There is no absolute majority for any other party either, so it is something like an unprecedented situation.” Melanson told his cheering supporters that Macron had suffered a “total defeat” and that his alliance was the new face of France’s historic “uprisings and uprisings”. Jordan Bardella, the current chairman of Le Pen’s Eurosceptic, anti-immigrant Rassemblement National party, said the RN was “a historic discovery”, while a smiling Le Pen said French people concerned about immigrants would now face crime and injustice. strong group to defend their interests in parliament. The Mélenchon’s Nupes – which includes the French Socialist, Communist and Green parties, as well as its own far-left La France Insoumise (France Unbowed) – will hold the meeting as chair of the assembly’s crucial economic committee after replacing the Les Republicains as the main opposition party. However, Macron’s Ensemble alliance appears to have won more seats than any other in the assembly, meaning the president is likely to escape an unproductive “cohabitation” with a government and prime minister imposed by a hostile parliamentary majority. As president of the Fifth Republic, founded by Charles de Gaulle in 1958, he also retains control of national defense and foreign policy. Macron and Prime Minister Elizabeth Bourne, however, will need to forge a coalition deal or interim deals with other parties – most likely the conservative LR – in order to pass new laws. This includes the next round of Macron economic reforms, including his plan to simplify the costly pension system and raise the formal retirement age to 65 from 62 today – a proposal strongly opposed by the left and challenged by leading unions. In April, Macron won Le Pen in the final round of the presidential election and became the first president in 20 years to win a second term. But now it seems very likely that he will be the first since 2002 who failed to secure a majority in the National Assembly after his own election. The left claimed many seats on Macron’s side, with Nupes candidates defeating Christophe Castaner, Macron’s former interior minister, and Richard Ferrand, the outgoing speaker. Some of Macron’s ministers are also likely to lose their jobs, according to the rule that ministers who run in elections and lose must resign. Health Minister Brigitte Bourguignon lost by 56 votes to a far-right candidate in northern France. In a constituency on the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe, Justin Benin, the junior minister for the sea, was beaten by a left-wing opponent.
