French Parliament elections: 149 projected seats for Mélenchon's NUPES
Jun 19,2022
French President Emmanuel Macron and his allies have lost their absolute majority in the National Assembly and with it control of the reform agenda, a crushing outcome for the newly re-elected president.
Initial projections showed Mr Macron’s centrist Ensemble! alliance was set to end up with the most seats in Sunday’s election, followed by the left-wing Nupes bloc – headed by the hard left veteran Jean-Luc Melenchon.
But Mr Macron and his allies will fall well short of the absolute majority they need to control parliament. Ministers and close aides acknowledged that, saying they would have to reach out to others beyond their alliance to govern France.
Newly re-elected French President Emmanuel Macron is set to lose his party’s absolute majority in the nation’s National Assembly as the first round of exit polls are published Projections from four separate pollsters indicate France may be heading towards a hung parliament. The French President’s centrist ‘Ensemble!’ alliance will still likely retain the most seats, followed closely by the country’s left-wing...
Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire called the outcome a “democratic shock” and said they would reach out to all pro-Europeans to help govern the country.
“The rout of the presidential party is complete and there is no clear majority in sight,” Mr Melenchon told cheering supporters.
United behind him, left-wing parties were on course to triple their score from the last legislative election, in 2017. But they failed to secure the outright win Mr Melenchon had hoped for.
If confirmed, a hung parliament would open up a period of political uncertainty that would require a degree of power-sharing among parties not experienced in France in recent decades. Other possible outcomes include political paralysis and even possibly repeat elections.
Rachida Dati, from the conservative Les Republicains, called the result “a bitter failure” for Mr Macron and said he should name a new prime minister.
There is no set script in France for how things will unfold as Mr Macron and Ensemble seek to find a way forward to avoid paralysis.
“There are moderates on the benches, on the right, on the left. There are moderate Socialists and there are people on the right who, perhaps, on legislation, will be on our side,” government spokeswoman Olivia Gregoire said.
In April, Mr Macron, 44, became the first French president in two decades to win a second term. But he presides over a deeply disenchanted and divided country where support for populist parties on the right and left has surged.
His ability to pursue further reform of the euro zone’s second biggest economy will hinge on his ability to rally moderates outside of his alliance on the right and left behind his legislative agenda.
Forecasts by pollster Ifop, OpinionWay, Elabe and Ipsos showed Mr Macron’s Ensemble alliance winning 210-240 seats and Nupes securing 149-188.
The former head of the National Assembly, Richard Ferrand, and Health Minister Brigitte Bourguignon lost their seats, in two major defeats for Mr Macron’s camp.
In another significant change for French politics, Marine Le Pen’s far-right party could score a ten-fold increase of its MPs, and win as much as close to 100 seats, the initial projections showed – its biggest number on record.
The Les Republicains party and its allies could also get as much as 100, potentially making them kingmakers, as their platform is more compatible with Mr Macron’s than any other group.
French President Emmanuel Macron and his allies have lost their absolute majority in the National Assembly and with it control of the reform agenda, a crushing outcome for the newly re-elected president.
Initial projections showed Mr Macron’s centrist Ensemble! alliance was set to end up with the most seats in Sunday’s election, followed by the left-wing Nupes bloc – headed by the hard left veteran Jean-Luc Melenchon.
But Mr Macron and his allies will fall well short of the absolute majority they need to control parliament. Ministers and close aides acknowledged that, saying they would have to reach out to others beyond their alliance to govern France.
Newly re-elected French President Emmanuel Macron is set to lose his party’s absolute majority in the nation’s National Assembly as the first round of exit polls are published Projections from four separate pollsters indicate France may be heading towards a hung parliament. The French President’s centrist ‘Ensemble!’ alliance will still likely retain the most seats, followed closely by the country’s left-wing...
Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire called the outcome a “democratic shock” and said they would reach out to all pro-Europeans to help govern the country.
“The rout of the presidential party is complete and there is no clear majority in sight,” Mr Melenchon told cheering supporters.
United behind him, left-wing parties were on course to triple their score from the last legislative election, in 2017. But they failed to secure the outright win Mr Melenchon had hoped for.
If confirmed, a hung parliament would open up a period of political uncertainty that would require a degree of power-sharing among parties not experienced in France in recent decades. Other possible outcomes include political paralysis and even possibly repeat elections.
Rachida Dati, from the conservative Les Republicains, called the result “a bitter failure” for Mr Macron and said he should name a new prime minister.
There is no set script in France for how things will unfold as Mr Macron and Ensemble seek to find a way forward to avoid paralysis.
“There are moderates on the benches, on the right, on the left. There are moderate Socialists and there are people on the right who, perhaps, on legislation, will be on our side,” government spokeswoman Olivia Gregoire said.
In April, Mr Macron, 44, became the first French president in two decades to win a second term. But he presides over a deeply disenchanted and divided country where support for populist parties on the right and left has surged.
His ability to pursue further reform of the euro zone’s second biggest economy will hinge on his ability to rally moderates outside of his alliance on the right and left behind his legislative agenda.
Forecasts by pollster Ifop, OpinionWay, Elabe and Ipsos showed Mr Macron’s Ensemble alliance winning 210-240 seats and Nupes securing 149-188.
The former head of the National Assembly, Richard Ferrand, and Health Minister Brigitte Bourguignon lost their seats, in two major defeats for Mr Macron’s camp.
In another significant change for French politics, Marine Le Pen’s far-right party could score a ten-fold increase of its MPs, and win as much as close to 100 seats, the initial projections showed – its biggest number on record.
The Les Republicains party and its allies could also get as much as 100, potentially making them kingmakers, as their platform is more compatible with Mr Macron’s than any other group.
FRANCE 24 English
Jun 19, 2022
Getting into the nitty gritty of the left-wing NUPES (New Popular Union) and its 149 seats, according to Ipsos-Sopra Steria estimates...
Jean-Luc Mélenchon's La France Insoumise ("France Unbowed" or LFI) is at 86 seats
Ecologists are set to take 28 seats
The Socialist Party is poised for 22 seats
And the French Communist Party 13 seats
The left had only 60 seats in the last legislature, and LFI alone only 17, so this does count as a good night for Mélenchon's side, even short of the majority and the far-leftists designs on becoming France's next prime minister.
France 24 Cole Stangler tells us more.
French elections—neoliberal Macron to lose majority
Jean-Luc Melenchon’s left wing coalition Nupes will be the main opposition in the French parliament
Campaigning for Nupes candidate Rachel Keke (centre in black top)
Jean-Luc Melenchon’s left wing coalition Nupes will be the main opposition in the French parliament
Campaigning for Nupes candidate Rachel Keke (centre in black top)
(Picture: @LayanJulien on Twitter)
France’s neoliberal president Emmanuel Macron took a shattering blow in Sunday’s elections as he was projected to lose his majority in parliament by a big margin. Needing 289 seats, polling organisations expected him to win just 234.
Five years ago Macron’s party and its allies had 356 seats. The decline is a damning verdict on his failures during the pandemic, his rule for the rich and his savage assaults on the Yellow Vests. And his lack of action over the cost of living crisis. Macron’s top two lieutenants in the parliament both lost.
Jean-Luc Melenchon’s New Popular Ecological and Social Union (Nupes) was predicted to take 142 seats, and be the main opposition. Its notable victories included Rachel Keke, a hotel cleaner and leading figure in the Ibis hotel strike in Batignolles.
“We are the ones who live in deprived areas and do key jobs,” she said. “We are the ones who are held in contempt and are exploited. So let us defend ourselves in parliament.” Keke defeated Macron’s former sports minister Roxana Maracineanu in a constituency in the suburbs of Paris.
Nupes’ manifesto called for lowering the retirement age to 60 and freezing the prices of essential goods. It promised investing “massively” in renewable energy and reintroducing a wealth tax that Macron removed. Its success is a very welcome sign of the enthusiasm for a left alternative.
But it wasn’t all good news. The fascist Marine Le Pen’s National Rally party (RN) was projected to win 9o seats. That smashed its previous high of 35 seats—and that was back in the 1980s under Jean Marie Le Pen when there was a much more proportional system. The fascists are a continuing danger who have gained from Macron’s racism and Islamophobia.
It’s more urgent than ever to strengthen united front activity against them. This cannot be postponed or forgotten because Nupes did well.
But for the media to declare the fascists the “big winners” ignores the left’s gains.
Stripped of a majority in parliament, Macron will rely on his allies to the right. That will include the traditional conservatives—expected to grab 75 seats—and even Le Pen’s fascists in some parliamentary votes.
All of these figures have to be set against a turnout of just 46 percent. More than half of potential voters are so disillusioned by the system that they didn’t vote, even in a very high-profile election.
In the run-up to the vote, Macron tried to witch hunt Nupes as dangerous and anti-democratic. It wasn’t so long ago that Macron and his allies were busy embracing Melenchon’s supporters. They needed their votes to defeat Le Pen in the April presidential run-off.
Bus, as the France24 channel says, “Two months on, the ruling party has singled out the veteran leftist and his fledgling coalition as the new threat to the Republic. In the words of Macron’s former education minister Jean-Michel Blanquer, Nupes is an extreme ‘just as dangerous as Le Pen’s far right’.” This desperate slur didn’t work
Nupes is made up of five parties including Melenchon’s France Unbowed (LFI) and the Labour-type Socialist Party, the Communists and the Greens.
The combined vote for these forces a week ago was similar to 2017. But together they made a breakthrough—but at the price of involving more pro-business elements such as the Socialist Party. The French Greens are also far from radical.
To hold Nupes together, LFI dropped measures such as the establishment of a commission on police violence, a ban on redundancies in large companies and nationalisation of banks. But Nupes’ success gave a massive momentum to the left with vibrant campaigns between last week’s election and Sunday’s vote.
French politics is polarising and entering even more stormy times where the key battles will be in the streets and the workplaces. The key issue now is whether those who voted left—and those who abstained—can be mobilised to push back the bosses and the government assaults. An early test will come when Macron seeks to attack pensions.
After most of the results were in, Melenchon said, “My message tonight, once again, is a message of combat. A message to the younger generation, the one that most strongly wants to break with this world. You have a magnificent combat tool—Nupes.” But the battles against low pay, inequality, racism, fascism and for people’s rights have to be taken up outside the parliamentary institutions. Struggle from below, not electoral manoeuvres, will determine the outcome.
France’s neoliberal president Emmanuel Macron took a shattering blow in Sunday’s elections as he was projected to lose his majority in parliament by a big margin. Needing 289 seats, polling organisations expected him to win just 234.
Five years ago Macron’s party and its allies had 356 seats. The decline is a damning verdict on his failures during the pandemic, his rule for the rich and his savage assaults on the Yellow Vests. And his lack of action over the cost of living crisis. Macron’s top two lieutenants in the parliament both lost.
Jean-Luc Melenchon’s New Popular Ecological and Social Union (Nupes) was predicted to take 142 seats, and be the main opposition. Its notable victories included Rachel Keke, a hotel cleaner and leading figure in the Ibis hotel strike in Batignolles.
“We are the ones who live in deprived areas and do key jobs,” she said. “We are the ones who are held in contempt and are exploited. So let us defend ourselves in parliament.” Keke defeated Macron’s former sports minister Roxana Maracineanu in a constituency in the suburbs of Paris.
Nupes’ manifesto called for lowering the retirement age to 60 and freezing the prices of essential goods. It promised investing “massively” in renewable energy and reintroducing a wealth tax that Macron removed. Its success is a very welcome sign of the enthusiasm for a left alternative.
But it wasn’t all good news. The fascist Marine Le Pen’s National Rally party (RN) was projected to win 9o seats. That smashed its previous high of 35 seats—and that was back in the 1980s under Jean Marie Le Pen when there was a much more proportional system. The fascists are a continuing danger who have gained from Macron’s racism and Islamophobia.
It’s more urgent than ever to strengthen united front activity against them. This cannot be postponed or forgotten because Nupes did well.
But for the media to declare the fascists the “big winners” ignores the left’s gains.
Stripped of a majority in parliament, Macron will rely on his allies to the right. That will include the traditional conservatives—expected to grab 75 seats—and even Le Pen’s fascists in some parliamentary votes.
All of these figures have to be set against a turnout of just 46 percent. More than half of potential voters are so disillusioned by the system that they didn’t vote, even in a very high-profile election.
In the run-up to the vote, Macron tried to witch hunt Nupes as dangerous and anti-democratic. It wasn’t so long ago that Macron and his allies were busy embracing Melenchon’s supporters. They needed their votes to defeat Le Pen in the April presidential run-off.
Bus, as the France24 channel says, “Two months on, the ruling party has singled out the veteran leftist and his fledgling coalition as the new threat to the Republic. In the words of Macron’s former education minister Jean-Michel Blanquer, Nupes is an extreme ‘just as dangerous as Le Pen’s far right’.” This desperate slur didn’t work
Nupes is made up of five parties including Melenchon’s France Unbowed (LFI) and the Labour-type Socialist Party, the Communists and the Greens.
The combined vote for these forces a week ago was similar to 2017. But together they made a breakthrough—but at the price of involving more pro-business elements such as the Socialist Party. The French Greens are also far from radical.
To hold Nupes together, LFI dropped measures such as the establishment of a commission on police violence, a ban on redundancies in large companies and nationalisation of banks. But Nupes’ success gave a massive momentum to the left with vibrant campaigns between last week’s election and Sunday’s vote.
French politics is polarising and entering even more stormy times where the key battles will be in the streets and the workplaces. The key issue now is whether those who voted left—and those who abstained—can be mobilised to push back the bosses and the government assaults. An early test will come when Macron seeks to attack pensions.
After most of the results were in, Melenchon said, “My message tonight, once again, is a message of combat. A message to the younger generation, the one that most strongly wants to break with this world. You have a magnificent combat tool—Nupes.” But the battles against low pay, inequality, racism, fascism and for people’s rights have to be taken up outside the parliamentary institutions. Struggle from below, not electoral manoeuvres, will determine the outcome.
REPLAY - Mélenchon: "Tonight's result marks above all Macron's defeat"
FRANCE 24 English
Jun 19, 2022
The result of France's lower house elections are a "totally unexpected and unseen" situation, Jean-Luc Melenchon told supporters of his left-wing NUPES alliance on Sunday night, adding that his camp had succeeded in his goal to deprive President Emmanuel Macron of a parliamentary majority.
Analysis: French left pulls off election gamble, but unity going forward not so easy
By John Irish and Layli Foroudi
Summary
Left wing alliance more than triples 2017 seats
Alliance has divisions over Europe, nuclear energy
Majority sees chance to get moderate left support
PARIS, June 19 (Reuters) - France's new left-wing bloc is set to become the largest opposition force in parliament, but staying united will present an early test as President Emmanuel Macron's majority seeks allies on the moderate left to push through his reform agenda.
Macron was on course to lose his absolute majority in the National Assembly after projections pointed to a hung parliament that would see the leftist Nupes alliance winning 175 to 200 seats, almost tripling the score of its combined parties in 2017.
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The bloc brings together the hard-left La France Insoumise (LFI), the Socialist Party, the Greens and Communists for the first time in 20 years - under the helm of the eurosceptic far-left veteran Jean-Luc Melenchon.
It campaigned to lower the retirement age from 62 to 60, raise the minimum wage and cap prices on essential products. But within the alliance there are major differences, from Europe to nuclear energy and policing, that were put aside for campaigning but which will be targeted by opponents.
"The rout of the presidential party is complete and no clear majority is in sight," Melenchon told his cheering supporters. "It is the failure of Macronism and the moral failure of those who lecture us."
Clementine Autain, one of his top lieutenants, said the results were a vindication of the left's strategy.
"This is a gathering of the forces for a social and ecological transformation on the basis of a profound change of society," she said.
Beyond the triumphalism, the question now is whether the alliance can hold. Melenchon's LFI party, which is projected to win about 90 lawmakers, slightly fewer than forecast in opinion polls, will want to lead the left in parliament.
But with the Socialists and Greens able to create their own parliamentary groups, it is not a given that they would support LFI on all issues when opposing the majority.
INTERNAL DIVIDES
Senior Macron officials were on Sunday already trying to drive a wedge through the different factions of the Nupes alliance, accusing LFI of being a party of the extremes and an unconstructive force in parliament over the last five years.
"How many times did you join the National Front in parliament?" Justice Minister Eric Dupont-Moretti asked LFI stalwart Manuel Bompard on France 2 television. "The extremes join each other."
Corinne Narassiguin from the Socialist Party, which has given France two presidents since World War Two and been a driving force for European integration, said time would tell if the alliance would survive or had just been an electoral machine.
"Like in other coalition groups in Europe, we will agree on points and have points of difference," she told Reuters. "It is an experiment, it is the first time that we’ve had a group elected as an inter-group and it is our responsibility to voters (to keep it together)."
In a sign of how the ruling majority may act in the coming days, government spokesperson Olivia Gregoire offered an olive branch to some opponents.
"On the right and left, there are moderates, Socialist moderates ... there are people who on some draft legislation they will be beside us," she told France 2. "It's an open hand to all those who want to make the country move forward."
By John Irish and Layli Foroudi
Summary
Left wing alliance more than triples 2017 seats
Alliance has divisions over Europe, nuclear energy
Majority sees chance to get moderate left support
PARIS, June 19 (Reuters) - France's new left-wing bloc is set to become the largest opposition force in parliament, but staying united will present an early test as President Emmanuel Macron's majority seeks allies on the moderate left to push through his reform agenda.
Macron was on course to lose his absolute majority in the National Assembly after projections pointed to a hung parliament that would see the leftist Nupes alliance winning 175 to 200 seats, almost tripling the score of its combined parties in 2017.
Advertisement · Scroll to continue
The bloc brings together the hard-left La France Insoumise (LFI), the Socialist Party, the Greens and Communists for the first time in 20 years - under the helm of the eurosceptic far-left veteran Jean-Luc Melenchon.
It campaigned to lower the retirement age from 62 to 60, raise the minimum wage and cap prices on essential products. But within the alliance there are major differences, from Europe to nuclear energy and policing, that were put aside for campaigning but which will be targeted by opponents.
"The rout of the presidential party is complete and no clear majority is in sight," Melenchon told his cheering supporters. "It is the failure of Macronism and the moral failure of those who lecture us."
Clementine Autain, one of his top lieutenants, said the results were a vindication of the left's strategy.
"This is a gathering of the forces for a social and ecological transformation on the basis of a profound change of society," she said.
Beyond the triumphalism, the question now is whether the alliance can hold. Melenchon's LFI party, which is projected to win about 90 lawmakers, slightly fewer than forecast in opinion polls, will want to lead the left in parliament.
But with the Socialists and Greens able to create their own parliamentary groups, it is not a given that they would support LFI on all issues when opposing the majority.
INTERNAL DIVIDES
Senior Macron officials were on Sunday already trying to drive a wedge through the different factions of the Nupes alliance, accusing LFI of being a party of the extremes and an unconstructive force in parliament over the last five years.
"How many times did you join the National Front in parliament?" Justice Minister Eric Dupont-Moretti asked LFI stalwart Manuel Bompard on France 2 television. "The extremes join each other."
Corinne Narassiguin from the Socialist Party, which has given France two presidents since World War Two and been a driving force for European integration, said time would tell if the alliance would survive or had just been an electoral machine.
"Like in other coalition groups in Europe, we will agree on points and have points of difference," she told Reuters. "It is an experiment, it is the first time that we’ve had a group elected as an inter-group and it is our responsibility to voters (to keep it together)."
In a sign of how the ruling majority may act in the coming days, government spokesperson Olivia Gregoire offered an olive branch to some opponents.
"On the right and left, there are moderates, Socialist moderates ... there are people who on some draft legislation they will be beside us," she told France 2. "It's an open hand to all those who want to make the country move forward."
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