Bourne, who was appointed just a month ago, said the result created an unusual situation that posed a “danger to our country”. After five years in control of the Assemblée Nationale, Macron now faces a challenge in implementing key policies, including raising the retirement age and overturning benefits and the country’s welfare system. His government will need to seek alliances and compromises to advance the measures. Macron had insisted before the election that all ministers who lost their seats should resign. Bourne, who avoided having to resign by narrowly winning the Normandy constituency, said Sunday night: “The situation is a threat to our country, given the challenges we face nationally and internationally. We need to understand the consequences of this vote. “We will work from tomorrow to build a working majority, there is no alternative to this union to guarantee the stability of our country and to continue with the necessary reforms. “We will open a dialogue with the French… everywhere. I have confidence in our country, confidence in each of us and a sense of responsibility “. Bourne’s office reportedly told RTL radio that her resignation was “a choice on the table”. Macron’s Ensemble needed 289 seats for a majority in the Assemblée Nationale but won only 245. The left-wing Nupes group, led by hardline left-wing Jean-Luc Mélenchon, won 131 seats, but the biggest surprise was a historic rise in support for Marin Le Pen’s far-right, anti-immigrant National Group (RN), which won 89 seats. , winning the traditional right-wing party Les Républicains (LR), which won 61. The result means that to succeed, the government will have to move to the right to form alliances with the LR and the center-right Union of Democrats and Independents (UDI). This led to calls for Macron to reinstate Prime Minister oudouard Philippe in his first term. “At this stage, if we start from the assumption that majorities can only be obtained with LR and UDI, there can only be one prime minister really from the right, in my view,” said Jérémie Peltier, director on the left Jean. -Jaurès Foundation, he said. However, LR remains divided. Christian Jacob, the party’s president, said: “We campaigned as an opposition, we are in opposition, we will remain in opposition.” Macron’s alliance remains the largest group in parliament, but has suffered significant losses in what the media called an “overwhelming defeat” and an “earthquake.” Political analysts saw the results as a “serious failure” for Macron’s alliance. Alexis Corbière, a spokesman for La France Insoumise (Unbowed France), the engine behind Nupes, said: “This is the first time in the fifth republic that a president has been in the minority in the National Assembly. We are now the main opposition. “Elizabeth Bourne has been expelled. He must leave, he no longer has the power to be prime minister. “Her fate is sealed,” Corbière told Sud Radio. The far-right gains show that Le Pen’s party has expanded from its traditional outposts in Pas-de-Calais to an area north and northeast and has spread from its southeastern base along the Mediterranean coast. Significantly, the far right opened up new avenues in western France, with a rising party star, 34-year-old Edwige Diaz, winning a seat in Gironde outside Bordeaux, in an area where “yellow vest” anti-government protests were taking place. very strong. The party’s high number of seats will allow Le Pen, who was elected in the Pas-de-Calais region, to form a large parliamentary group and receive more visibility and significant funding for its debt-ridden party. Le Pen gave a winning speech from northern France, saying her party had won the largest number of seats in history. “We will be a strong opposition,” he said. The interim leader of her party, Jordan Bardella, called it a “tsunami”. Subscribe to the First Edition, our free daily newsletter – every morning at 7am Clémentine Autain, a close ally of Mélenchon, described the result of the united left as a “discovery”. Rachel Kek, a left-wing hotelier who led a strike for better pay and conditions at a Paris hotel, became the first cleaner to be elected to the French parliament. Macron’s centrists insisted they had reached the top, even though the mood at the party headquarters was gloomy. “It’s a disappointing first place, but it’s a first place,” Olivia Grégoire, a government spokeswoman, told French television. He said the government would ally with the “moderates” who wanted to “get things done”, but did not say how Macron’s team would avoid the stalemate over the legislation. Economy Minister Bruno Lemerre described the results as a “democratic shock”, which he described as a far-right push by the far right. He said the results reflected the “great concerns” of the French electorate, but that Macron’s policy plans could continue as “work, security, Europe, climate”. Lemmer said Macron was the only person who had the “democratic legitimacy” to decide on the plan and reach out to others in parliament to move forward. He said he did not believe there would be chaos in parliament and that the results were disappointing but not a defeat. Macron, who was re-elected president in April over Le Pen, had called for a “solid majority” in parliament to be free to pursue domestic policy.
