World News: France Confronts A Divisive Presidential Election Season
- Details
- Category: Haute This Issue
- Published on Wednesday, 23 September 2026 10:36
- Written by Olivier Longhi
As the election for the President of the Republic draws closer, the question of the legislative election is already being raised, which is likely to upset the result of the first consultation to elect the head of the executive.
Because in view of the state of disintegration of the political environment, imagining a majority opposed to the new President is not impossible. To say that the far right has never been so close to supreme power is an understatement. Leading the polls, Marine Le Pen can, according to the institutes conducting the surveys cited, legitimately see herself sitting at the Elysée Palace in a little less than a year now.
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And seeing her win the presidential election would only be half a surprise as the internal and external situation pushes the extremes, because it is also important not to neglect the power and strength of La France Insoumise (LFI) in front of the doors of power.
However, and this is certainly one of the paradoxes of the Fifth Republic, if the President enjoys powers that make him wear the clothes of a republican monarch, these same powers are, as the Constitution requires, shared with the Government, which is itself dependent on the National Assembly.
However, many of Emmanuel Macron's predecessor presidents considered, also at the same time, that a victory in the presidential election automatically led to a victory in the legislative elections. Under the Fifth Republic, this is a constant that has never been denied: an elected President has always been able to benefit from a majority during the first years of his mandate, at least five years.
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Common sense
However, this automaticity is in no way so and is based on the invocation of the common sense of the voters that the President-elect believes to be full and complete, rich in discernment and logic that would push to elect a majority supporting the President of the Republic.
If Marine Le Pen were to be elected, she would legitimately intend to rely on a majority that would be acquired in the name of the elements mentioned above. But, political science teaches us that nothing is logical within the electorate, Emmanuel Macron, with his a posteriori dissolution judged as a failure, knows this only too well now. This leads us to think that even if elected, Marine Le Pen or Jean-Luc Mélenchon, or even another candidate for the Elysée, may have to deal with a different majority than the one she or he expected.
In concrete terms, the President could easily find himself in a situation of cohabitation from the first days of the session of the newly elected Assembly. This would be a first in the Fifth Republic without being a drama because the situation would express a desire for balance between the executive and the legislative, a way of controlling the omnipotence of the Elysée via the Assembly.
And if we take the analysis even further, seeing the emergence of a majority is still hypothetical because several types of majorities can prevail relative or absolute, or even none, forcing the Government to juggle on alliances built and deconstructed according to circumstances. Without going into political fiction, this scenario, a nightmare of any President of the Republic, is not so dystopian as all that.
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Majority
The voters' desire to get out of the classic pattern of an omnipotent President and his swashbuckling majority, ready to vote for anything and everything in the name of an intangible principle of allegiance.
The risk is therefore serious, and it would further weaken the presidential function, not by striking a blow to it that would destabilize it but by reducing its field of action. Charles de Gaulle and Michel Debré had never imagined that the President of the Republic could one day be held hostage by the Assembly, but the constitutional reform of 2002, wanted by Jacques Chirac, modelling the legislative mandate on that of the executive, traumatized as it was by its cohabitation with Lionel Jospin, accelerated the pace of the electoral mechanism by reducing the duration of its action over time.
Thus, is it forbidden to suggest that Marine Le Pen could be elected President of the Republic without having the necessary majority in the National Assembly? Absolutely not. The situation would certainly be unprecedented, but it would remain so for the time it takes to become so, in view of the disintegration of the political environment for several years now, it could become a tacit rule for the functioning of our institutions. To sum up: a President yes, a republican monarch flanked by deputies-subjects no.
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Bio: Olivier Longhi has extensive experience in European history. A seasoned journalist with fifteen years of experience, he is currently a 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 and recognized blogger, editor, and editorial project manager, he has trained and managed editorial teams, worked as a journalist for various local radio stations, was a press and publishing consultant, and was a communications consultant.
