World News: French Elections Result in No Clear Majority

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Category: World News - Europe

Published on Tuesday, 09 July 2024 09:26

Written by Olivier Longhi

As the results of the snap elections ordered by French President Emmanuel Macron have been counted, and no majority emerged, the president will need to become an expert at comprise and negotiation to further his agenda.

The results of the legislative elections confirmed the destruction of the historic national political landscape while sealing the limits of a presidency without a defined political axis, alternating between neo-liberalism and social democracy, both poorly applied.

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By dissolving the National Assembly on June 9, on the evening of a tidal wave described as historic by the far right at the ballot box, President Macron, wishing through the new legislative elections announced for June 30 and July 7, to give the assembly a clearer and clearer majority, did not think he would achieve the result we know today,  namely an assembly without a majority when the previous one had a relative one, certainly, but a majority.

From then on, three groups dominated the lower house, giving rise to a situation that was perhaps worse than the one that had prevailed until then. From this point out, the elements of well-known language emerge, such as the need to learn to practice political compromise, to govern with more or less willing coalitions, to establish technical governments or to live under the threat of a motion of censure that would overthrow the Government.

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Historical Parties

However, on closer inspection, the composition of the new assembly is ultimately a reflection not only of the current national political landscape, composed of three blocks, but also of what could be described as the child of Macronia.

In concrete terms, elected twice on the idea of overcoming the historical parties without pushing them to disappear, Emmanuel Macron had taken the gamble of bringing together under his name all those who wanted to reform the country without abandoning their convictions but by associating them in a form of the political maelstrom of which he would be the guarantor.

By seeking to deconstruct the ancestral political landscape articulated around the bipolarity of right and left, with a more or less identified center, Emmanuel Macron has, voluntarily or involuntarily, pushed for the situation that presides over the destiny of France: three poles with deep and irreconcilable divergences for some, with rare and narrow areas of cooperation for others.

The president, who was expecting a clear and identified majority, now finds himself with an assembly that reflects his mandate: without any real orientation, without identity and without a fundamental project capable of giving birth to a guideline that is also identified.

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No Line

Between unbridled liberalism, social democracy to be reformed and exclusive and autarkic right-wing extremism, the President of the Republic will have to choose not one side but several. The exercise was very easy when it was the only one, accompanied by a swashbuckling majority, absolute or relative, which voted without a fight or which relied on 49.3, to pick from the right or the left ideas, projects or orientations that it wanted to implement.

But this lack of a clear line, sent back to the Assembly by the dissolution as if to get rid of sovereign responsibility, ended up turning against a president alone in the face of an inertia that began to be seriously expressed the day after his re-election.

And if there is a lesson to be learned from this episode, it is that no country can be governed by sight, but on the contrary, with a clear political line, even if it is divisive, and this to the benefit of democracy because it also feeds the opposition debate, and not a sum of diverse and varied convictions incapable of constituting a valid political corpus.

Thus, the results of the legislative elections have certainly sounded the death knell for the "at the same time" dear to a president who wanted to be above the parties but who finally turned out to be their hostage.

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Bio: Olivier Longhi has extensive experience in European history. A seasoned journalist with fifteen years of experience, he is currently professor of history and geography in the Toulouse region of France. He has held a variety of publishing positions, including Head of Agency and Chief of Publishing. A journalist, recognized blogger, editor, and editorial project manager, he has trained and managed editorial teams, worked as a journalist for various local radio stations, a press and publishing consultant, and a communications consultant.