A French flag flies above the National Assembly, in Paris, on July 8.Gonzalo Fuentes/Reuters
French lawmakers voted on Thursday in a tight race to elect the assembly’s president, in a ballot that could be key to who calls the shots in the country’s politics for years to come following this month’s inconclusive election.
The result is expected late on Thursday evening. A grouping of leftist parties unexpectedly came first in the June 30 and July 7 snap parliamentary election, ahead of President Emmanuel Macron’s centrists and Marine Le Pen’s far right, but no one group won a majority.
Electing the lower house of parliament’s president, equivalent to a speaker, who organizes the chamber’s agenda and runs debates, is usually a formality. But running parliament has taken on more importance this time, with Macron weakened and a lot of uncertainty over who will form the next government and how effective it could be in a very fragmented parliament.
The vote could also offer clues as to whether a coalition government that commands a working majority can be formed and what its political colours could be. The New Popular Front (NFP) left-wing alliance, hastily assembled before the snap election, wants to run the government, but has been fighting bitterly since the July 7 second round of voting over whom to put forward as prime minister.
It hopes its candidate for parliament chief, veteran Communist lawmaker Andre Chassaigne, who is well-liked across party lines, could be elected. This could potentially boost the NFP’s chances of forming a government, by showing the alliance can command a majority in the assembly.
However, Macron’s Together group could be striking a deal with the conservatives, or other parties, to try to get the outgoing parliament chief, Yael Braun-Pivet, re-elected.
Macron’s camp in turn hopes that would put mainstream parties in a stronger position to forge an alliance to form a government that could include some of the NFP but exclude the hard-left France Unbowed.
The far-right National Rally (RN), though it has little hope of getting the speaker role, is vying for other key roles in the assembly, including chairing the powerful finance committee.
Chassaigne topped the first round of voting on Thursday, but finished far from the absolute majority needed to win in that round. The RN’s Sebastien Chenu came second and Braun-Pivet third. Of the three, Braun-Pivet is likely the one who has the best chances of getting votes from other parties in later rounds.
Votes are confidential and alliances are likely to be struck between voting rounds. To win in the second round, a candidate would need an absolute majority of votes cast, which is unlikely to happen. In a third round, the candidate with the most votes wins.
Once the president has been chosen, attention will return to who will run the government. Centrist Prime Minister Gabriel Attal has resigned but is, for now, staying on in a caretaker capacity. The caretaker government could well stay on for the Olympic Games, which Paris is hosting from July 26 to Aug. 11, and possibly beyond.
No matter what happens, the constitution dictates that there can be no repeat snap election for a year.
RN lawmaker Philippe Ballard said parliament was so fragmented that the current situation was not viable.
“Dissolving parliament again in a year is the only way out, since no group, in this assembly, can have a majority,” he told reporters.