France at crossroads as left-wing emerges surprise winner but falls short of majority

“The will of the people must be strictly respected. No arrangement would be acceptable. The defeat of the president and his coalition is clearly confirmed. The president must accept his defeat,” a belligerent Jean-Luc Melenchon, chief of the hard-Left France Unbowed Party and de-facto chief of the New Popular Front- the left wing alliance, said.

His comment comes soon after it became clear that the bloc had registered a surprise victory at the polls, dashing the hopes of Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally (RN) which, together with its allies was being widely seen as winning the elections after winning the first round a week ago. 

European leaders and political watchers heaved a sigh of relief at the country rejecting the prospect of bringing in a far-right government and the French elections 2024 ended on a rather dramatic note.

However, the road hereon remains uncertain as no party has achieved an absolute majority. 

French election results

The New Popular Front (NFP) has won 182 MPs in the 577-seat assembly, followed by president Emmanuel Macron’s centrist Ensemble or Together with 163 deputies, and RN has been relegated to the third spot with 143 seats. 

“The tide is rising. It did not rise high enough this time, but it continues to rise and, consequently, our victory has only been delayed,” Le Pen said after the results. She is expected to contest the presidential elections in 2027 now. 

Meanwhile, prime minister Gabriel Attal announced his resignation on Monday. However, Attal said that if his resignation was refused, he was ready to stay in office considering Paris Olympics were due to begin on July 26. 

A hung parliament and uncertainty over PM spot

Melenchon, on Sunday already put out his demand urging Macron to appoint a prime minister from among the left-alliance and implement the programme of the NFP. 

According to rules, the president is free to choose whoever he wants as the PM, and with NFP winning the highest number of seats, a leader among them may have been the obvious choice, had it not been for Macron’s own party’s reluctance to work with the “extreme” France Unbowed. 

According to the Elysee Palace, Macron will wait until the new assembly has been “structured” before “taking the necessary decisions,” meaning Attal could stay in office in the coming days and weeks, Le Monde reported. 

Rama Yade, senior director of the Atlantic Council’s Africa Center and a senior fellow with the Europe Center, said:

France is entering an era of coalition politics, a practice to which the country is not accustomed. Macron, who was looking for clarification, did not get it. The relative majority he had in 2022 has disappeared, and his party is now in the minority in the National Assembly. He will have to choose a prime minister who will appoint a government whose first task will be to be strong enough to avoid falling prey to a no-confidence vote. The center of gravity of French politics will shift from the executive to parliament. There is a possibility of permanent instability if the opposition parties unite.