Macron retains control of the National Assembly

4 months ago 16

After coming second in the early legislative elections of 30 June and 7 July, the Macon-backed coalition managed to keep the presidency of the National Assembly, thanks to the support of right-wing MPs.

Caught between the left-wing coalition of the Nouveau Front Populaire (NFP) and the far-right Rassemblement National (RN) in Parliament, Macron’s MPs have succeeded in re-electing Yaël Braun-Pivet as leader of the National Assembly.

Elected in the third round of voting with 220 votes against 207 for Communist André Chassaigne and 141 for RN candidate Sébastien Chenu, she received the support of the MPs of the right-wing Les Républicains party.

‘I am committed to working with each and every one of you. This election means more to me than the one in 2022’, she emphasised at the end of the vote.

Braun-Pivet was the first woman to hold the office of president of the National Assembly, having been elected in 2022, thanks to the abstention of RN MPs.

Following the election results, the left-wing parties in the NFP once again denounced the ‘scheming’ of the presidential camp.

‘At the price of a secret agreement with the Republicans, the details of which we will discover later […] the Elysée candidate regains [the presidency of the National Assembly] after three successive defeats in the European and legislative elections. It’s an ultimate denial of democracy’, explained Olivier Faure, the first secretary of the Socialist Party (PS) on social network X.

As the fourth highest-ranking official in the French state after the president of the Republic, the president of the Senate, and the prime minister, the resident of the National Assembly is primarily responsible for ensuring the proper conduct of debates in the Chamber but also has powers of appointment, notably to the Constitutional Council.

Having benefited from establishing a ‘Republican front’ against the far right during the legislative elections and, therefore, from the support of many left-wing voters, the presidential coalition has used the right this time to push back the NFP parties.

However, the union formed remains too narrow to dominate the National Assembly, despite Macron’s call on 10 July for the ‘republican political forces’ to ‘build a solid majority’. In conclusion, France is still a long way from emerging from the political crisis in which it has been mired since the dissolution of 9 June.

On the sidelines of the vote, the General Confederation of Labour (CGT) called for a demonstration in Paris to demand that President Emmanuel Macron appoint a prime minister from the NFP, which came out on top in the last legislative elections.

‘Democracy must finally be respected’, said Sophie Binet, the union’s general secretary.

(Laurent Geslin | Euractiv.fr)