The popular daily newspaper recorded the climate after President Emanuel Macron lost his majority in the National Assembly and faced left-wing and far-right parliamentary blocs determined to repeal his economic reforms, including reforming his system. “It’s the worst case scenario for Macron,” said Vincent Martigny, a professor of politics at the University of Nice. “French political culture is not in favor of suspended parliaments. . . “We are not used to compromising.” This is the first time since 1988 that elections have failed to create an absolute majority in the assembly. Macron will be forced to make deals with political opponents – most likely the conservative Les Républicains (LR) – if he wants to pass laws like the one he would need to implement his unpopular plan to raise the official retirement age from 62 to 65. But analysts doubted that Macron could make much progress with the current parliament. He could replace Prime Minister Elizabeth Bourne with a nod to his party’s bad results and be tempted to dissolve the assembly and call new elections in a year or two, as the constitution allows. Whatever his choices, the leader is unlikely to rekindle the liberal reformist enthusiasm that marked the start of his first term since coming to power in 2017. Élisabeth Borne, Prime Minister, faces pressure after disappointing election results © Ludovic Marin / AFP / Getty Images “Macron will not be able to pursue the economic policy goals he promised during the campaign, because he has to make too many compromises,” said Armin Steinbach, professor of law and economics at HEC Paris. “His reform agenda will be much less ambitious than expected.” Even pension reform is likely to weaken, Steinbach said, and the easiest policies to pursue will be those that involve more spending rather than less — such as investing in renewable energy or subsidizing consumers affected by inflation — because they are most likely approved by opposition parties. For tougher reforms, Macron could try to find a deal with LR, which has secured 61 seats, to gain a majority in the assembly. The president’s Ensemble alliance, which won 245 seats, and the LR are both in favor of companies and agree on policies such as tax cuts that are bothering French industry. “I do not think we can say that nothing will happen,” said Xavier Jaravel, a professor of economics at the London School of Economics. “There will be measures to deal with it [inflation] crisis, for example. “But the question is whether we can change things in the long run.”

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Some see an advantage for the French Republic – plagued by high voter turnout – if not for its economy. The election of hundreds of new MPs from parties that have previously complained about under-representation may show frustrated voters that they can have a voice even in an electoral system without proportional representation. “Contrary to what many say, this is a demonstration that the majority in two rounds [winner takes all] “The system does not produce the necessary results that do not reflect public opinion,” said Anne Levade, a constitutional law specialist at the Sorbonne University. “Will the opposition parties systematically oppose everything and make the governance of the country impossible or will they take positions that allow the governance of the country? “Their credibility is at stake.” In the 2017 parliamentary elections, the far-right Rassemblement National won eight of the 577 seats in the National Assembly, despite the fact that Marin Lepen secured 34 percent of the vote in the second round of the presidential election that year. This time he won 89. As for the left, its support in the previous elections was divided between different parties, leaving it with a few MPs. This time, far-left politician Jean-Luc Mélenchon has formed a left-green alliance that has become the largest opposition group. Rachel Keke, a center, hotel maid and member of the France Unbowed party, campaigned in Paris last week. The Left-Green Alliance Has Become the Largest Opposition Group © Thibault Camus / AP The new recruitment of MPs from the right and the left comes from a different background, analysts said. While Macron’s 2017’s new parliamentary group consisted of many women and was mostly highly educated and middle-class, the new body includes workers such as Rachel Keke, a hotel maid.

Melenchon member France Unbowed led a long-running union strike in the Ibis Hotel on the outskirts of Paris. One of her colleagues is 21-year-old student Louis Boyard, one of the two youngest MPs in French history. “I think the French are calling for a major renewal of their democracy,” Martigny said. “It will be a brand new parliament. What is new is the amazing social renewal. . . Macron called his own [campaign] book Revolution, but what we saw was actually very conservative. “ Macron, who has recovered from political setbacks, is now in danger of falling victim to the curse of the ousted second president who ousted Charles de Gaulle, François Mitterrand and Jacques Chirac, Martini added: “It’s his beginning. and it looks like the end already. “It is very difficult to see how they will rebound.”