France in limbo after Macron gamble deepens political deadlock
France was faced with an unsettling political vacuum Monday after snap elections called by President Emmanuel Macron to reshape the political landscape failed to clear a path to a new government.
The left-wing New Popular Front (NFP) won most seats in Sunday’s second-round parliamentary vote, beating both Macron’s centrists and Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally (RN).
But no group wields an outright majority and no obvious candidate for prime minister has emerged.
Many in France were overjoyed by the outcome, and cheering crowds gathered in eastern Paris to celebrate Le Pen’s defeat, but potentially divisive talks on forming a new government were just beginning, three weeks before Paris hosts the Olympics.
Prime Minister Gabriel Attal visited the Elysee Palace to submit his resignation to Macron, but was asked to remain in power in a caretaker capacity to see out the Games – and reassure the international community and the markets that France still has a government.
International reaction was muted and mixed.
France’s EU partners are relieved that Le Pen’s eurosceptic outfit will not come to power, where they could endanger future European integration and western support for Ukraine.
German chancellor Olaf Scholz’s administration was “somewhat relieved over what didn’t happen”, spokesman Steffen Hebestreit told reporters in Berlin.
Moscow, meanwhile, tried to mask its disappointment.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia would have preferred a win by “political forces ready to make the efforts to restore our bilateral relationships” but now harbored neither “hope nor particular illusion on this matter”.
The unprecedented situation in France is taking shape just as Macron is due to be out of the country for most of the week, taking part in the NATO summit in Washington.