Sensational overturn of the electoral result in the run-off French political elections. Surprisingly and contrary to the first electoral round of just 7 days ago, the New Popular Front of the left, which is now running to govern and which - according to third projections - gathers between 177 and 192 seats against the 134-145 of the Rassemblement National The Pen and allies, the 152-158 of the center of Macron. Numbers also confirmed by the count. At 23pm, when there are still 80 sections to be counted (almost all in and around Paris, areas where the center and the left are favoured), the New Popular Front has 146 seats, Ensemble at 140, RN at 137 and the Republicains at 40.
Despite Jean-Luc's triumphalism Mélenchon, which represents the populist wing of the New Popular Front and which for now excludes agreements with Macron's centre, there is no majority because the quorum is 289. Contrary to what Mélenchon claims, the result of the ballot is actually a political victory of President Macron who bet on early elections and then on the anti-Le Pen republican alliance which brought the far right to its knees.
French ballot: the majority is not there
The result is sensational but now the problems are coming and it is all too predictable that there will be no shortage of turbulence Bag. There are two problems: firstly the New Popular Front he doesn't have a majority and the contents flaunted by Mélenchon risk sending France's public budget into disarray. The leader of La France Insoumise in fact immediately proposed the suspension of the reform pensions of Macron raising the retirement age from 60 to 64, the increase of minimum salary and price freeze. However, it cannot be ruled out that the Popular Front will split, that the more reasonable wing led by the socialist Gluksmann takes over and negotiates a government agreement with the Macronian Center on the basis of a more realistic programmatic platform, despite the fact that during the evening the left has leaked that it intends to propose a unified name for the candidacy for prime minister.
What is certain is that Le Pen's right leaves with broken bones and it is nothing short of pathetic, but highly significant, that the Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov you're talking about vote manipulation that prevented Le Pen from winning. Now the word passes to the President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron.
Macron will not speak: he awaits the "structuring of the assembly"
From the Elysée, although it has already been announced that the President Macron will not make any statements this evening, satisfaction transpires. For weeks Macron has come under fire for dissolving the National Assembly and calling elections that were believed to almost certainly bring the far right to power. And instead the opposite happened: “The turnout – at a record level of 67% – demonstrates that the French had to express themselves". Immediately afterwards, however, a call for "prudence" came from the president's entourage, since the results do not guarantee that we can create “a coherent coalition”. The president, said an official Elysée source, “will wait for the structuring of the new Assemblée Nationale to make the necessary decisions. The president, in his role as guarantor of the institutions, will ensure that the sovereign choice of the French is respected."
Premier Attal announces his resignation
“Tomorrow morning I will submit my resignation“. This is the reaction of the French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal which highlighted that no absolute majority emerged from the vote. “This evening no absolute majority can be given into the hands of the extremes,” she said, then remarking: “Thanks to the strength of your values we have succeeded and we have remained standing and solid”
From Mélenchon to Bardella: the first comments
He was the first to comment on the election outcome Jean-Luc Mélenchon, leader of the far-left party La France insoumise: “The New Popular Front is ready to govern,” he said, “we have achieved a result that they told us was impossible.” “It is a huge relief for much of the country,” she continued, underlining that “the will of the people must be strictly respected.” Then the direct attack on Macron: “No agreement would be acceptable. The defeat of the President of the Republic and his coalition is clearly confirmed. The president must bow and accept his defeat ”. “The president must ask the New Popular Front to govern,” he added. “The people voted according to their conscience,” he concluded. An aversion reciprocated, given that the presidential majority has repeatedly reiterated that it will not form any alliance that includes Mélenchon and the Melenchonians and Prime Minister Attal, former Prime Minister Edouard Philippe and Foreign Minister Sejourné have also called for an executive after the elections which cuts out Mélenchon's France Insoumise.
The comment by the leader of the socialists is more measured and much more concise, Raphael Glucksman: “The assembly is divided, let's behave like adults”.
Different, and it must be understood, are the tones and words used by the defeated aspiring prime minister, Jordan Bardella after third place in the Rassemblement National: the party, he said, "achieves the most important result in its entire history".
“Unfortunately – he continued – the alliance of dishonoree the electoral agreements of Emmanuel Macron and Gabriel Attal and the far left throw France into the arms of Mélenchon”. Bardella finally praised "the dynamic that supports the RN, and which placed it at the head of the first round" and allows it to obtain a historic number of deputies. “In the face of the single party,” she said, “everything begins this evening.” “I will be here, for you, with you until victory. Tonight an old wall fell and nothing can stop a country that has begun to hope,” he concluded.
Just a few words from Marine Le Pen, who speaking to Tf1 said: "The tide continues to rise, our victory is only postponed".
(Last update: 23.35 on 7 July).
