{"id":255095,"date":"2022-06-20T07:50:19","date_gmt":"2022-06-20T07:50:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=255095"},"modified":"2022-06-21T06:31:15","modified_gmt":"2022-06-21T06:31:15","slug":"far-right-tsunami-in-france-sees-macron-lose-parliament-majority","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=255095","title":{"rendered":"Far-right \u2018tsunami\u2019 in France sees Macron lose parliament majority"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Times of Israel \u2013 June 20, 2022<\/strong><\/h1>\n

French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday lost his parliamentary majority after major election gains by a newly formed left-wing alliance and a surge from the far right, in a stunning blow to his plans for major second-term reform.<\/p>\n

The result from Sunday\u2019s second round poll threw French politics into turmoil, raising the prospect of a paralyzed legislature or messy coalitions with Macron forced to reach out to new allies.<\/p>\n

Macron, 44, now also risks being distracted by domestic problems as he seeks to play a prominent role in putting an end to Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine and as a key statesman in the EU.<\/p>\n

Macron\u2019s \u201cTogether\u201d coalition will still be the biggest party in the next National Assembly. But with 245 seats, according to full interior ministry results announced in the early hours of Monday, it is well short of the 289 seats needed for a majority in the 577-member chamber.<\/p>\n

Far-right leader Marine Le Pen\u2019s National Rally party made huge gains and will send 89 MPs to the new parliament, up from eight in the previous parliament, making it the biggest rightwing force in parliament ahead of the traditional right The Republicans (LR).<\/p>\n

Le Pen, who lost to Macron in the presidential election, was re-elected as MP in her stronghold of H\u00e9nin-Beaumont, in northern France.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Macron adventure has reached its end,\u201d Le Pen said. The group of National Rally lawmakers \u201cwill be by far the biggest of the history of our political family.\u201d<\/p>\n

Acting National Rally president Jordan Bardella compared his party\u2019s showing to a \u201ctsunami.\u201d \u201cTonight\u2019s message is that the French people made from Emmanuel Macron a minority president,\u201d he said on TF1 television.<\/p>\n

Le Pen has for years sought to distance herself from the antisemitic legacy of her political group and her father, with mixed success. In 2017, Le Pen faced criticism for denying that France was responsible for its role in rounding up French Jews for deportation to Nazi death camps.<\/p>\n

The National Front has made considerable electoral gains since Le Pen became its leader in 2011, succeeding her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, a Holocaust revisionist and openly antisemitic nationalist. The party advocates pulling out of the European Union, stopping immigration from Muslim countries and imposing limitations on religious freedoms, as well as harsh punishments for violence and incitement.<\/p>\n

Marine Le Pen kicked out her father from the party in 2015 following his conviction for inciting racial hatred against Jews. (He suggested a Jewish singer critical of the party be \u201cput in the oven.\u201d) She has kicked out several party members for antisemitic rhetoric.<\/p>\n

The new left-wing coalition NUPES under 70-year-old hard-left figurehead Jean-Luc Melenchon won 135 seats, according to an AFP count based on the results published by the ministry.<\/p>\n

The coalition, formed in May after the left splintered for April\u2019s presidential elections, brings together Socialists, the hard left, Communists and greens.<\/p>\n

Melenchon called Sunday\u2019s results \u201cabove all an electoral failure\u201d for Macron.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe rout of the presidential party is total and there will be no majority\u201d in parliament, he told cheering supporters in Paris.<\/p>\n

A prominent MP from Melenchon\u2019s party, Alexis Corbiere, said the result meant Macron\u2019s plan to raise the French retirement age to 65 had been \u201csunk.\u201d<\/p>\n

Failure for Macron<\/h3>\n

\u201cThis situation constitutes a risk for our country, given the challenges that we have to confront,\u201d Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne said in a televised statement, vowing: \u201cWe will work from tomorrow to build a working majority.\u201d<\/p>\n

The outcome severely tarnished Macron\u2019s April presidential election victory when he defeated the far-right to be the first French president to win a second term in over two decades.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a turning point for his image of invincibility,\u201d said Bruno Cautres, a researcher at the Centre for Political Research of Sciences Po.<\/p>\n

Le Monde daily headlined on its website: \u201cMacron faces the risk of political paralysis,\u201d while the Le Figaro daily said the results raised the specter of a \u201cstillborn new mandate\u201d.<\/p>\n

Macron had hoped to stamp his second term with an ambitious program of tax cuts, welfare reform and raising the retirement age. All that is now in question.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis will complicate the reforms\u2026 It will be much more difficult to govern,\u201d said Dominique Rousseau, professor of law at Paris Pantheon-Sorbonne University.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe slap,\u201d said the headline in the left-leaning Liberation\u2019s Monday edition, adding the results represented the \u201cfall\u201d of Macron\u2019s way of governing.<\/p>\n

There could now potentially be weeks of political deadlock as the president seeks to reach out to new parties.<\/p>\n

The most likely option would be an alliance with the Republicans, the traditional party of the French right, which has 61 MPs.<\/p>\n

LR president Christian Jacob however made clear there would be no easy partnership, saying his party intended to \u201cstay in opposition.\u201d<\/p>\n

Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire denied that France would be ungovernable but admitted \u201ca lot of imagination would be needed\u201d from the ruling party in an \u201cunprecedented situation\u201d.<\/p>\n

Macron had called on voters to hand his coalition a \u201csolid majority\u201d last week, adding \u201cnothing would be worse than adding French disorder to the world disorder.\u201d<\/p>\n

In another blow, key ministers standing for election were set to lose their jobs under a convention that they should resign if they fail to win seats.<\/p>\n

Health Minister Brigitte Bourguignon, Maritime Minister Justine Benin and Environment Minister Amelie de Montchalin \u2014 a pillar of Macron\u2019s administration over the last years \u2014 all lost and will now exit the government.<\/p>\n

Two other close Macron allies, parliament speaker Richard Ferrand and former interior minister Christophe Castaner, both acknowledged defeat in the fight for their seats.<\/p>\n

In a rare spot of good news for the president, Europe Minister Clement Beaune and Public Service Minister Stanislas Guerini \u2014 both young pillars of his party \u2014 won tight battles for their seats.<\/p>\n

On the left, Rachel Keke, a former cleaning lady who campaigned for better working conditions at her hotel, was also elected, defeating Macron\u2019s former sports minister Roxana Maracineanu.<\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday lost his parliamentary majority following major gains by Marine Le Penn\u2019s National Rally party, which now has 89 MPs in parliament<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[104],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-255095","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-france"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255095","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=255095"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255095\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":255096,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255095\/revisions\/255096"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=255095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=255095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=255095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}