‘Now, what do we do?’ read Le Parisien’s front-page headline as the shock of Sunday’s election results began to sink in.
The day after a historic election, France woke up to a final result that none of the polls had predicted. The left-wing coalition’s New Popular Front held the most seats in the National Assembly but was nowhere near enough to form a government, followed by President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist coalition, which lost dozens of seats. Finally, in third place is the party that pollsters and pundits expect to lead – the far-right National Rally.
The question now plaguing the country is who will rule France and how.
In a country that dislikes political compromise and cooperation, it is unclear how to form a government and undertake the important work of passing a national budget and enacting new laws.
On Monday morning, one question was answered, but only for now, it seems. The Elysee Palace said Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, from Macron’s party and once a favorite of the president, offered to resign, but Macron asked him to stay in office temporarily “to ensure the stability of the country.”
Macron now needs to wrestle with who he wants as prime minister. The challenge will be to appoint someone capable of forming a government so that incoming MPs from the left and right do not topple it with a vote of no confidence.
The president called snap elections a month after the Eurosceptic far-right defeated his pro-European party in European Parliament elections. Mr Macron explained that a domestic vote would provide “clarification” for the country. In short, he asked his fellow citizens whether they could really allow the far right to take power when many believe its views pose a threat to society.
Ultimately, the answer seems to be that many people can’t imagine that scenario. These include left-wing parties and some of Mr Macron’s centrist faction, who have banded together to form a so-called “dam” against the national rally by withdrawing dozens of candidates from the three-way race.
Still, the country appears to be more chaotic than before, with three major political blocs, each with distinct visions and plans for the country. Electoral maps show persistent divisions – with Paris and its suburbs voting for the left and center, while regions along the Mediterranean coast to the far north and south vote for the far right.
Le Parisien summed up the situation this way at the end of its editorial: “When clarification descends into the thickest fog.”
The conservative daily Le Figaro published an editorial saying that the country was plunged into “the greatest chaos”. “Tomorrow’s National Assembly will be more difficult to manage than yesterday.”
The editorial vowed to readers to “blaze a never-ending path through the fog of this crisis.”
“Everything is possible, everything is imaginable,” said Jean-Philippe Derosier, professor of public law at the University of Lille.
Much of the country is in shock. When the election began, all polls showed that the far-right National Rally was expected to win the most seats. The question is whether it can win enough seats to gain an outright majority and take over the prime minister’s office and cabinet appointments.
“Flip – a stunning reversal,” read the headline of an editorial in the Catholic daily La Croix.
To some, the election results appeared to be a clear rejection of the anti-immigration ideology of the National Rally, although the party and its allies made huge gains in the election, gaining about 140 seats, about 50 more than before the National Rally. seats.
The front page of the business daily Les Echos carried a large photo of the party’s president, Jordan Bardella, with the short but pointed headline: “A slap in the face”.
The nation’s capital has locked down the far right, and the sense of relief and joy is palpable.
People poured into the Place de la République, a perennial site of protests in the city. They danced, hugged, and congratulated each other. Fireworks exploded overhead.
“I’m relieved,” said Charlotte Cosmao, a 33-year-old set designer who was drinking a celebratory beer with a friend on the edge of the square. “I’m very happy.”
A smaller celebration was held at another Place de la République in the city of Le Mans, 140 miles southwest of Paris. The region also prevents the far right from gaining any seats. One of the losing candidates was Marie-Caroline Le Pen, the daughter of the party’s founder Jean-Marie Le Pen. (Another daughter, Marine Le Pen, is a longtime leader of national rallies and won her seat outright in the first round.)
“It’s unbelievable, completely unexpected,” history teacher Damien Fabre, 36, said at the Le Mans celebrations as someone nearby screamed that there were no fascists in the area. The audience cheered. “It changes the entire political future of this country.”
“We are starting to get used to the idea of getting a relative majority at national rallies,” said Mr. Fabre, who campaigned for candidates from France’s far-left Indies party. “Now a way out is open for the left: while it may not be able to implement its program, it can at least be in an offensive position and lead the way.”
Although there were some confrontations with police on the streets in parts of the country at the end of the night, the vote did not lead to the surge in violence that many, including the interior minister, expected. Some 30,000 police officers are spread across the country, including 5,000 in and around Paris, where far-right elements are particularly unpopular and authorities fear the protests could turn violent if they win. Many shopkeepers in the city boarded up their stores along the capital’s most famous avenue, the Champs Elysées, anticipating looting and rioting, but that did not happen.
Among supporters of the far right, many attracted by its promises to cut taxes, reduce immigration and increase state services, they are clearly disappointed.
“They call us fascists, but that doesn’t exist anymore,” newly elected National Rally politician Claire Marlet-Boy said at a small victory party at a local cafe in Beauvais, northern France.
“I’m worried about my France,” she added. “It will become unmanageable and everything we want to do will be hindered or made difficult.”
There is also the question of whether the victory for the left is more a rejection of the far right than an endorsement of Syriza’s platform. The newly formed coalition last week called on voters to help it form a barrier – a “dam” or “Republican front” – to prevent it from taking power. It even withdrew 130 candidates from the three-way race and backed its opponents to defeat the national rally.
An editorial in left-leaning newspaper Liberation praised the left for defeating the so-called xenophobic right. The editorial began: “Thank you to whom? Thank you to the Republican Front.
But it said that vote forced the left-wing New Popular Front to “live up to the maturity of the electorate”. The editorial asked the coalition to remain humble, downplay partisanship and address the deep feelings many voters feel about downward mobility (“déclassement” in French) that fuels the far right.
It told left-wing leaders not to forget that “the far right is stronger than ever in our country”.
Liz Oldman Reporting from Beauvais, France; Segolena Lestradic from Le Mans, France; and natural aida From Paris.
