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Macron’s party loses outright majority in French parliament

Left-leaning lawmakers defected on Tuesday to rob President Emmanuel Macron's party of its outright majority in France's National Assembly in a symbolic but non-paralysing setback for the embattled reformist leader.

Published: 19 May 2020 17:08 CEST

Seventeen members of Macron's La Republique En Marche (LREM) party said they had formed a new political grouping named “Ecology, Democracy, Solidarity” (EDS) to pursue greener policies, “modernise” the political system, and reduce social inequalities.

“After Covid-19, nothing will be like before,” they said in a statement and insisted “we can do more and better in the National Assembly.”

The 577-member assembly is the lower house of parliament, but has the final say on most legislation over the upper house or Senate.

The Assemblée nationale – not the Senate – has the final say over most legislation in France. Photo: AFP

Macron's then brand-new LREM took 308 seats in 2017 elections that saw the centrist leader swept to power from relative obscurity.

Lawmakers have quit the party at a trickle since then, and it was finally left with 288 seats on Tuesday – one fewer than the 289 required for an outright majority.

The governing party insisted that Tuesday's loss was not “cataclysmic”, as it could continue to rely on smaller, allied parties for a voting majority in the assembly.

Macron's popularity has zigzagged as he has fought a succession of political battles starting with the so-called 'yellow vest' rebellion of 2018-2019 that was sparked by widespread anger against a leader seen by critics as the president of the rich and out of touch with ordinary people.

That was followed early this year by France's longest continuous transport strike over the former investment banker's plans to reform the country's pension system.

This month, an opinion poll showed only about a third of French people had confidence in Macron to manage the country's problems.

This came as the country looked to Macron to spearhead the fight against the coronavirus outbreak that has seen the economy tank in spite of several billions of euros in government interventions to prop up businesses and save jobs.

One of the vice-presidents of the new EDS grouping is Cedric Villani, who opted to stand as an independent candidate for Paris mayor in March local elections after Macron chose someone else to represent the party.

Cedric Villani stood to be mayor of France as an independent candidate. Photo: AFP

Villani denied Tuesday that any “rebellion” was at play.

In its declaration, the EDS listed 15 priorities that included “reindustrialising” the economy, seeking “real transparency” in politics and boosting a public health system caught ill-prepared for the coronavirus crisis.

Member comments

Anonymous - 19 May 2020 at 20:44 CEST

“…the EDS listed 15 priorities that included “reindustrialising” the economy, seeking “real transparency” in politics…”
What a load of codswallop! Reindustrialise doesn’t sound very compatible with greener policies and real transparency in politics is a contradiction in terms. It sounds to me like a bunch of politically opportunistic shysters. At the very time, for the sake of the country, they should be supporting the president they helped to elect, they desert him. As for M Villani, he maybe a genius, but I wouldn’t trust him with my biro if he needed one.
Anonymous - 20 May 2020 at 08:28 CEST

Villani, just another power mad person who is looking for an opportunity to raise his own profile….
Anonymous - 20 May 2020 at 14:05 CEST

“Macron’s popularity has zigzagged”? His popularity sank like a stone a few months after taking office and stayed there.

If Villani is “power-mad”, then what does that make Macron, he of the 49-3, no press conferences and Yellow Vests steamrolling, LOL? Power-uber-insane?

Of course he has defectors. The chap is a one-term president who will be detested far more in French culture and their history books than Sarko or Hollande, that’s for sure, and that is no small achievement.
Anonymous - 20 May 2020 at 15:17 CEST

Of course he’s detested; he’s trying to pull the French out of the quagmire of socialist la la land.

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Azerbaijan vehemently rejects the accusation it bears responsibility for the riots that have led to the deaths of five people and rattled the Paris government.

But it is just the latest in a litany of tensions between Paris and Baku and not the first time France has accused Azerbaijan of being behind an alleged disinformation campaign.

The riots in New Caledonia, a French territory lying between Australia and Fiji, were sparked by moves to agree a new voting law that supporters of independence from France say discriminates against the indigenous Kanak population.

Paris points to the sudden emergence of Azerbaijani flags alongside Kanak symbols in the protests, while a group linked to the Baku authorities is openly backing separatists while condemning Paris.

“This isn’t a fantasy. It’s a reality,” interior minister Gérald Darmanin told television channel France 2 when asked if Azerbaijan, China and Russia were interfering in New Caledonia.

“I regret that some of the Caledonian pro-independence leaders have made a deal with Azerbaijan. It’s indisputable,” he alleged.

But he added: “Even if there are attempts at interference… France is sovereign on its own territory, and so much the better”.

“We completely reject the baseless accusations,” Azerbaijan’s foreign ministry spokesman Ayhan Hajizadeh said.

“We refute any connection between the leaders of the struggle for freedom in Caledonia and Azerbaijan.”

In images widely shared on social media, a reportage broadcast Wednesday on the French channel TF1 showed some pro-independence supporters wearing T-shirts adorned with the Azerbaijani flag.

Tensions between Paris and Baku have grown in the wake of the 2020 war and 2023 lightning offensive that Azerbaijan waged to regain control of its breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region from ethnic Armenian separatists.

France is a traditional ally of Christian Armenia, Azerbaijan’s neighbour and historic rival, and is also home to a large Armenian diaspora.

Darmanin said Azerbaijan – led since 2003 by President Ilham Aliyev, who succeeded his father Heydar – was a “dictatorship”.

On Wednesday, the Paris government also banned social network TikTok from operating in New Caledonia.

Tiktok, whose parent company is Chinese, has been widely used by protesters. Critics fear it is being employed to spread disinformation coming from foreign countries.

Azerbaijan invited separatists from the French territories of Martinique, French Guiana, New Caledonia and French Polynesia to Baku for a conference in July 2023.

The meeting saw the creation of the “Baku Initiative Group”, whose stated aim is to support “French liberation and anti-colonialist movements”.

The group published a statement this week condemning the French parliament’s proposed change to New Caledonia’s constitution, which would allow outsiders who moved to the territory at least 10 years ago the right to vote in its elections.

Pro-independence forces say that would dilute the vote of Kanaks, who make up about 40 percent of the population.

“We stand in solidarity with our Kanak friends and support their fair struggle,” the Baku Initiative Group said.

Raphael Glucksmann, the lawmaker heading the list for the French Socialists in June’s European Parliament elections, told Public Senat television that Azerbaijan had made “attempts to interfere… for months”.

He said the underlying problem behind the unrest was a domestic dispute over election reform, not agitation fomented by “foreign actors”.

But he accused Azerbaijan of “seizing on internal problems.”

A French government source, who asked not to be named, said pro-Azerbaijani social media accounts had on Wednesday posted an edited montage purporting to show two white police officers with rifles aimed at dead Kanaks.

“It’s a pretty massive campaign, with around 4,000 posts generated by (these) accounts,” the source told AFP.

“They are reusing techniques already used during a previous smear campaign called Olympia.”

In November, France had already accused actors linked to Azerbaijan of carrying out a disinformation campaign aimed at damaging its reputation over its ability to host the Olympic Games in Paris. Baku also rejected these accusations.