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POLITICS

Abstention to far-right surge: 5 key takeaways from France’s parliamentary elections

An 'unprecedented' result in the parliamentary elections leaves France facing parliamentary deadlock and an uncertain future - as the dust settles from Sunday's votes, here are some of the main talking points.

Published: 20 June 2022 11:21 CEST
Abstention to far-right surge: 5 key takeaways from France's parliamentary elections
Supporters of leader of left-wing coalition Nupes (Nouvelle Union Populaire Ecologique et Sociale - New Ecologic and Social People's Union) react during a speech after the first results of the second round of the parliamentary elections in Paris, on June 19, 2022. Photo by Bertrand GUAY / AFP

The results are in from Sunday’s parliamentary elections, with president Emmanuel Macron losing his parliamentary majority. The final results showed 245 seats for Macron’s Ensemble coalition (44 seats short of an absolute majority), 131 for the leftist alliance Nupes and 89 for the far-right Rassemblement National.

Here are 5 of the biggest takeaways from the historic result:

Far-right surge – the big surprise of the elections was the huge gains made by Marine Le Pen’s far-right Rassemblement National party, something that had not been predicted by pollsters.

Although Le Pen came second in the 2017 presidential elections (and again came second in the April 2022 election) her party had previously performed poorly in parliamentary elections, winning just eight seats.

That all changed on Sunday, as RN surged to a massive 89 seats, making them the third biggest block in the parliament and the largest single party (since Ensemble and Nupes are both alliances of multiple parties).

This is the best ever result for Le Pen’s party, and it also means the financially-troubled party will be eligible for more funding from the State, which is allocated on the basis of parliamentary representation.

A confident Le Pen said her party would demand the chair of the powerful finance commission, as is tradition for the biggest single-party opposition.

“The country is not ungovernable, but it’s not going to be governed the way Emmanuel Macron wanted,” Le Pen told reporters on Monday.

Minority government – Macron now faces governing in a minority, after his Ensemble coalition won the largest number of seats, but not enough to form an overall majority.

His position is not as bad as his predecessors Jacques Chirac and François Mitterand, both of whom were forced to govern in ‘cohabitation‘ after their parties lost the parliamentary majority. Cohabitation occurs when the president’s party is not the largest party in parliament, and the president is then forced to appoint as prime minister the leader of the party with the parliamentary majority.

Macron’s loss of an absolute majority, however, means he faces five years of shaky alliances and deal-making with opposition MPs in order to get any legislation passed. Previous presidents have spent part of their term with a small minority but to begin a five-year term with such a large minority – 44 seats short – is unprecedented in the Fifth Republic.

READ ALSO What next for France after Macron loses majority?

France divided – the most striking thing about the new electoral map is how fragmented it is – no party or group dominates overall and there are few ‘local strongholds’ for any party.

This is reflected in the overall results for the parliament, in which Macron’s party has the largest number of seats but no majority and no other party has a clear mandate to dominate parliament.

The leftist Nupes alliance failed in its ambition to become the single largest group in parliament and force Macron to appoint the far-left veteran politician Jean-Luc Mélelchon as prime minister. 

After decades of domination by the two big parties of the centre-left and centre-right these elections confirm the trend seen in the presidential elections in April – that French votes are bow divided into three roughly equal blocks; the far left, far right and centre.

The increasing acrimony between the groups also lead to the collapse of the Front républicain – the traditional pact where voters from across the political spectrum band together to vote against any far-right candidate who makes it through to the second round of voting.

The failure of candidates of both Macron’s centrist group and Mélenchon’s leftist group to call for a strong Front républicain contributed to the unexpected success of Le Pen candidates.

OPINION France has voted itself into a prolonged and painful crisis

New faces – The Macron government lost three ministers – health minister Brigitte Bourguignon, environment minister Amélie de Montchalin and maritime minister Justine Benin – who all failed to be elected. They don’t technically have to quit their ministerial roles, but Macron said before the election that he expected ministers who lost elections to step down.

The other 12 ministers who were standing for election won their seats – in the case of Europe minister Clément Beaune by just 658 votes – but a government reshuffle is now on the cards.

One of the most high-profile of the newly-elected candidates is Rachel Kéké, a former hotel maid who came to prominence leading a campaign for better working conditions at her hotel in the Paris suburbs. She was elected as the Nupes candidate, defeating Macron’s former sports minister Roxana Maracineanu.

The north-east suburbs of Paris now has a husband-and-wife MP combination, as Alexis Corbières was re-elected in Bagnolet while his wife Raquel Garrido won her first term in neighbouring Bobigny. They both represent the hard-left La France Insoumise and Garrido is originally Chilean, moving to France as a child after her parents fled the coup in 1973. 

The new parliament is slightly less gender-balanced than previously, with 215 female MPs out of a total of 557. The 2017 parliament counted 224. 

Turnout – the elections saw a record low turnout, with just 46 percent of registered voters casting their ballot papers. This marked the lowest turnout rate for parliamentary elections since the beginning of the Fifth Republic in 1958, a three-point fall on 2017 which previously held the record.

The second round of voting also saw a fall in turnout from round one the previous week, when 48 percent of voters turned out.

The abstention rate follows the trend of the presidential elections in April, which also saw a record low turnout for a presidential election.

Member comments

  1. IMHO, there is an urgent matter of stop calling le pen the far right, because they are national socialists. they have no “right” program as a less state-controlled economy, rather otherwise (a lot of subsidies)

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POLITICS

France mounts ‘major operation’ to open route to New Caledonia’s restive capital

French forces launched a "major operation" on Sunday to regain control of a key road linking New Caledonia's capital Noumea to the main international airport, after a sixth night of violent unrest.

Published: 19 May 2024 09:47 CEST
France mounts 'major operation' to open route to New Caledonia's restive capital

Officials said more than 600 heavily armed gendarmes were deployed to secure Route Territoriale 1, the main north-south artery connecting the restive capital with the rest of the island and the outside world.

The Pacific archipelago has been convulsed by violent unrest since Monday. Local authorities say six people have been killed — including two gendarmes — and hundreds have been injured.

The violence has been fuelled by economic malaise, ethnic tensions and long-standing opposition to French rule. Around 230 people have been detained, authorities said.

A nighttime curfew, state of emergency, ban on TikTok and arrival of hundreds of troops from mainland France failed to prevent more unrest overnight Saturday to Sunday.

Unidentified groups set two fires and raided a petrol station, according to the office of New Caledonia’s high commissioner.

But authorities insisted the situation is improving. “The night has been calmer,” the commissioner’s office said.

Local media reported a public library was among the buildings burned.

The mayor’s office told AFP there was “no way of confirming for the moment” as the “neighbourhood remains inaccessible”.

Stranded tourists

For almost a week, protesters have set vehicles, shops, industrial sites and public buildings alight, while pro-independence forces have controlled access to Tontouta International Airport.

A local business group estimated the damage, concentrated around Noumea, at more than 200 million euros ($200 million).

AFP reporters were able to reach the airport from Noumea on Sunday, but were stopped repeatedly by groups blocking access at several locations.

Flights to and from New Caledonia’s main island have been cancelled since the unrest began, stranding an estimated 3,200 travellers and cutting off a key trade route.

A street blocked by debris and burnt out items is seen following overnight unrest in the Magenta district of Noumea,

A street blocked by debris and burnt out items is seen following overnight unrest in the Magenta district of Noumea, France’s Pacific territory of New Caledonia, on May 18, 2024. (Photo by Delphine Mayeur / AFP)

French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said “a major operation of more than 600 gendarmes” was being launched “aimed at completely regaining control of the 60 kilometre main road” and allowing the airport to reopen.

The single-lane Territorial Route 1 weaves through the dense bush-covered hills and mountains that reminded explorer James Cook of Scotland and gave the islands their current name.

READ MORE: Explained: What’s behind the violence on French island of New Caledonia?

Australia and New Zealand are among the nations waiting for Paris’ all clear to send planes to evacuate trapped tourists.

In Wellington, Foreign Minister Winston Peters said New Zealand Defence Forces had “completed preparations” for flights to “bring home New Zealanders in New Caledonia while commercial services are not operating.”

Australian tourist Maxwell Winchester and his wife Tiffany were due to leave Noumea on Tuesday.

Instead, he told AFP, they have been barricaded inside a resort halfway between the city and the airport, with dwindling supplies.

“They basically burned up every exit on the motorway and all the roads that you could use to get anywhere. So wherever you are, you’re blockaded,” he said.

“We’re just about to run out of food,” he said, adding that with supermarkets inaccessible or burned “the resort staff are basically using black market sources to get something.”

“Every night we had to sleep with one eye open, every noise we were worried that they were coming in to loot us,” he said.

“This morning at an exit near here, the gendarmerie was coming through and there was a shootout.”

‘Spiral of violence’

New Caledonia has been a French territory since the mid-1800s.

Almost two centuries on, its politics remain dominated by debate about whether the islands should be part of France, autonomous or independent — with opinions split roughly along ethnic lines.

Indigenous Kanaks make up about 39 percent of the islands’ 270,000 people, but tend to be poorer and have fewer years of schooling than European Caledonians.

France prohibits the state from collecting statistics based on ethnicity, but economists like Catherine Ris estimate about five percent of Kanaks have a higher education diploma versus 28 percent of non-Kanaks.

The latest cycle of violence was sparked by plans in Paris to impose new voting rules that could give tens of thousands of non-Indigenous residents voting rights.

Pro-independence groups say that would dilute the Kanak vote. The islands are also home to sizable Vietnamese and Polynesian communities.

French officials have accused a separatist group known as CCAT of being behind the violence and have placed at least 10 of its activists under house arrest.

READ ALSO: Why is France accusing Azerbaijan of stirring tensions in New Caledonia?

CCAT on Friday called for “a time of calm to break the spiral of violence.”

Annie, an 81-year-old Noumea resident, said the week’s violence had been worse than the tumultuous 1980s, a time of political killings and hostage-taking referred to as “The Events”.

“At the time, there weren’t as many weapons,” she said.

Around 1,000 security forces began reinforcing the 1,700 officers already on the ground from Thursday.

Efforts to negotiate peace have so far stumbled, although French President Emmanuel Macron had begun contacting pro- and anti-independence officials individually on Friday, his office said.

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