{"id":89758,"date":"2024-07-07T20:38:09","date_gmt":"2024-07-07T20:38:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/07\/07\/french-election-yields-deadlock-as-left-surges-and-far-right-comes-up-short\/"},"modified":"2024-07-07T20:38:09","modified_gmt":"2024-07-07T20:38:09","slug":"french-election-yields-deadlock-as-left-surges-and-far-right-comes-up-short","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/07\/07\/french-election-yields-deadlock-as-left-surges-and-far-right-comes-up-short\/","title":{"rendered":"French Election Yields Deadlock as Left Surges and Far Right Comes Up Short"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1050\" height=\"550\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/07\/07\/multimedia\/07france-mwph\/07france-mwph-facebookJumbo.jpg?resize=1050,550&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"French Election Yields Deadlock as Left Surges and Far Right Comes Up Short\" title=\"French Election Yields Deadlock as Left Surges and Far Right Comes Up Short\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">France faced a hung parliament and deep political uncertainty after the three main political groups of the left, center and right emerged from snap legislative elections on Sunday with large shares of the vote but nothing approaching an absolute majority.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Projections based on preliminary results upended widespread predictions of a clear victory for the National Rally, Marine Le Pen\u2019s anti-immigrant party that dominated the first round of voting a week ago. Instead, the left-wing New Popular Front appeared to hold the lead, with between 172 and 208 seats, according to several polling institutes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The centrist Renaissance party of President Emmanuel Macron, who cast the country into turmoil a month ago by calling the election, was in second place with between 150 and 174 seats, the projections indicated. Trailing them was the National Rally, which took between 113 and 152 seats.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The details of the outcome may still shift, but it is clear that, to a remarkable degree, a scramble by centrists and the left to form a \u201cRepublican front\u201d to confront the National Rally in the second round of voting worked. Candidates across France dropped out of three-way races and called for unity against Ms. Le Pen\u2019s party.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThe president now has the duty to call the New Popular Front to govern,\u201d said Jean-Luc M\u00e9lenchon, the far-left leader who is the charismatic but polarizing voice of the left-wing alliance. \u201cWe are ready.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But France looked near ungovernable, with the Paris Olympics about to open in less than three weeks. The left surged, the National Rally added dozens of seats to its presence in the National Assembly, and Mr. Macron\u2019s party suffered a stinging defeat, with the 250 seats held by his party and its allies in the National Assembly cut by more than a third.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The result was that in the sharply divided lower house of Parliament, where most legislative power resides, no governing coalition appeared immediately conceivable, with Mr. Macron\u2019s centrists squeezed between far-right and far-left groups that detest each other and him.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Jordan Bardella, the prot\u00e9g\u00e9 of Ms. Le Pen who led the National Rally to victory in European Parliament elections and the first round of legislative voting last month, hailed the \u201cthe most important breakthrough in all the history\u201d of the party. He called the deals that frustrated its push for an absolute majority \u201can alliance of the dishonorable\u201d and said Mr. Macron had condemned France to \u201cuncertainty and instability.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Even with fewer seats than predicted, the National Rally has now assumed a place in French politics that erased a postwar political landscape built around the idea that the far right\u2019s history of overt racism and antisemitism made it unworthy of positions of power.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Ms. Le Pen has disavowed that past. But even in its rebranded form, the party\u2019s core message remains that immigrants dilute a glorified French national identity and that tighter borders and stricter regulations are needed to keep them out or prevent them from benefiting from the French social safety net.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">France rejected that vision, but voted overwhelmingly for change. It did not want more of the same. It sent a stinging message to the pro-business elites gathered around Mr. Macron, who is term-limited and must leave office in 2027.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cFrance is more divided than ever,\u201d said Alain Duhamel, a prominent political scientist and author. \u201cWe have learned it was a very bad idea for Mr. Macron to dissolve Parliament and call this election.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">At a time when a faltering President Biden is struggling to counter the nationalist America First message of former President Donald J. Trump, protracted French political limbo could add to an unstable international situation. Long close to Russia, Ms. Le Pen has tried to recast herself as a guarded supporter of Ukraine, but there is no question that Moscow will welcome the National Rally\u2019s growing influence.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The New Popular Front campaigned on a platform that would raise France\u2019s monthly minimum wage, lower the legal retirement age to 60 from 64, reintroduce a wealth tax and freeze the price of energy and gas. Instead of cutting immigration, as the National Rally vowed, the alliance said it would make the asylum process more generous and smooth.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The platform said the alliance was supportive of Ukraine\u2019s fight for freedom against Russia, and called for President Vladimir V. Putin to \u201canswer for his crimes before international justice.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">How exactly the alliance\u2019s economic program would be financed at a time when France faces a ballooning budget deficit, and how a pro-immigration policy would be applied in a country where it is perhaps the most sensitive issue, was unclear.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The New Popular Front, which is sharply divided between moderate socialists and the far left, did very well among young people in the first round of voting, and in the projects heavily populated by North African immigrants around major cities, including Paris.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The ardently pro-Palestinian stance of Mr. M\u00e9lenchon proved popular in these areas, even as it caused outrage when he appeared to cross a line into antisemitism, accusing Ya\u00ebl Braun-Pivet, the Jewish president of the National Assembly, of \u201ccamping out in Tel Aviv to encourage the massacre.\u201d He said of a large demonstration last November against antisemitism that \u201cthe friends of unconditional support of the massacre have their rendezvous.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Nothing had obliged Mr. Macron to call the snap election, but he was ready to gamble he could still be a unifying figure against the extremes. In fact, he had lost the allure to do so over seven years in office. He declared left and right to be obsolete labels when he came to power in 2017. They no longer are.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Macron now appears to have two options, excluding resignation, which he has vowed he will not contemplate.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The first is to try to build a broad coalition that might stretch from the left to what remains of moderate Gaullist conservatives, some of whom broke a taboo during the campaign by aligning with the National Rally.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">This possibility seems remote. Mr. Macron has made no secret of his intense dislike for Mr. M\u00e9lenchon; the feeling is reciprocated.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The second, less ambitious option would be for Mr. Macron to try to form some sort of caretaker government to handle current business.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Macron might, for example, ask former prime ministers from parties across a centrist bloc \u2014 his own, the Socialists, the center-right Republicans \u2014 to suggest a government of technocrats or prominent personalities who could deal with a restricted agenda over the next year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Under the Constitution, at least a year must elapse before the next parliamentary election.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">One area where Mr. Macron may still be able to exert considerable influence, more than if he had been forced into a \u201ccohabitation\u201d with Mr. Bardella as prime minister, is international and military affairs, the traditional preserve of the president in the Fifth Republic.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">An ardent supporter of the 27-nation European Union, which the National Rally wants to weaken, he will no doubt pursue his push for a \u201cEurope power\u201d with more integrated armies, defense industries and technological research, but his clout may be lessened by domestic weakness.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Macron, once tempted by a rapprochement with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, has also become an outspoken supporter of Ukraine\u2019s fight for its freedom. With the American presidential election just four months away, doubts have grown over the willingness of the West to continue arming and funding Ukraine.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Russia clearly believes France will wobble. \u201cThe people of France are seeking a sovereign foreign policy that serves their national interests &amp; a break from the dictate of Washington &amp; Brussels,\u201d the Russian foreign ministry said in statement a few days ago. \u201cFrench officials won\u2019t be able to ignore these profound shifts in the attitudes of the vast majority of citizens.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">France, in short, faces great uncertainty, both internally and externally. It appears that a constitutional crisis cannot be ruled out over the coming months. Gabriel Attal, the outgoing centrist prime minister who offered his resignation Sunday, declared that \u201ctonight no absolute majority can be controlled by the extremes thanks to our determination and values.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">He was claiming a small victory, but of course the center does not have any such majority either.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Unlike many other European countries, including Belgium, Italy and Germany, France has no tradition of monthslong negotiation to form convoluted coalition governments between parties of divergent views, or of making caretaker alliances. Indeed, Charles de Gaulle designed the Fifth Republic in 1958 to put an end to the parliamentary turmoil and short-lived governments of the Fourth Republic.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">One theory offered for Mr. Macron\u2019s mysterious decision to call the election was that, with the National Rally governing and Mr. Bardella as prime minister, the sheen would have come off the far right party before the presidential election in 2027.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">It was another gamble based on the idea that it is easier to rail from the margins than to make difficult governmental decisions. Mr. Macron does not want to hand the keys to the \u00c9lys\u00e9e Palace, the seat of the presidency, to Ms. Le Pen three years from now.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In this sense, the election result may confound Mr. Macron and benefit Ms. Le Pen. She has demonstrated her growing popularity without her party assuming the burdens of office. On the other hand an ingrained French resistance to the idea of power passing to the far right was once again illustrated.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/07\/07\/world\/europe\/france-election-results-left-surges.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>France faced a hung parliament and deep political uncertainty after the three main political groups of the left, center and right emerged from snap legislative elections on Sunday with large shares of the vote but nothing approaching an absolute majority. Projections based on preliminary results upended widespread predictions of a clear victory for the National [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":89759,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/07\/07\/multimedia\/07france-mwph\/07france-mwph-facebookJumbo.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[35450,50,8456,4342,10170,20545,65285],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89758"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89758"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89758\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":89760,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89758\/revisions\/89760"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}