French president Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday called on mainstream parties to join forces to form a solid majority in the National Assembly, in his first public comments since Sunday’s snap election delivered parliamentary gridlock.
The vote, which Mr Macron unexpectedly called after losing to the far-right National Rally (RN) in June’s European elections, has plunged France into uncharted waters, with three politically divergent blocs and no obvious path to forming a government.
In a letter to regional newspapers, the deeply unpopular Mr Macron urged mainstream parties with “republican values” to form a governing coalition and said he hoped to pick a prime minister from such a grouping.
“Let us place our hope in the ability of our political leaders to demonstrate sense, harmony and calm in your interest, and that of the country,” he wrote. “It is in the light of these principles that I will decide on the appointment of the prime minister.”
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Mr Macron did not explicitly call for the RN and the hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) parties to be excluded from such coalition, but his mention of “republican values” is typically understood to exclude parties on the far left or the far right.
The left-wing New Popular Front (NFP), which combines France Unbowed, the Communists, Greens and Socialists, unexpectedly won the most seats in Sunday’s vote, but not a majority. Mr Macron’s centrist camp came second and the RN third.
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The RN’s Marine Le Pen said blame for the political impasse lay squarely with Mr Macron.
“Today, we find ourselves in a quagmire since no one is able to know from what rank the prime minister will come, or what policy will be pursued for the country,” Ms Le Pen told reporters as she arrived in parliament.
She condemned pre-election deals she said kept RN from power.
Meanwhile, leftist leaders also took to the airwaves to stress that, having topped the election, they should run the government. Carole Delga, from the Socialist Party, stressed that the left on its own cannot govern, and must extend its hand to others – but on the basis of the NFP’s tax-and-spend programme.
But others took a harder line.
“The NFP has the greatest number of deputies in the National Assembly; it is therefore up to the NFP to constitute a government ... this is what we are working towards,” Manuel Bompard, from France Unbowed, told LCI TV.
– Reuters
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