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PARIS — French President Emmanuel Macron’s supporters may have won a battle. But the war for control of the French government has only begun.
On Thursday, Macron’s allies in Parliament joined forces with MPs from the right-wing Republican Right political group to reelect the head of the French National Assembly, the country’s fourth highest-ranking official.
That’s raised hopes in the president’s camp that — despite its loss to a left-wing coalition in a legislative election earlier this summer — Macron’s party could still emerge as a kingmaker and even have a chance to lead France’s next government.
On Friday, the Republican Right, which is formally registered as an opposition group, was quick to pour cold water on those expectations.
“We weren’t going to elect a communist to head the National Assembly,” Republican Right lawmaker Annie Genevard said in an interview with Europe1 on Friday, explaining why they elected to vote for Macron’s ally Yaël Braun-Pivet over the communist lawmaker André Chassaigne.
“We were elected as opponents to Emmanuel Macron, within an independent right,” she added. “This isn’t related.”
Other parties in the National Assembly described Braun-Pivet’s reelection as an anti-democratic power grab following a first-place finish in the legislative by the New Popular Front, a broad, left-wing coalition that has struggled to remain united since winning election.
Cross-party compromise is rare in French politics, but with the left finishing with too few seats to reach an absolute majority in the snap vote, it was always vulnerable to being topped by some sort of coalition among its opponents.
Socialist leader Olivier Faure called the election of a Macron ally following defeats for the president’s party in both the European and legislative elections “the height of denial of democracy.”
Another point of controversy was the participation of cabinet ministers in the election of Braun-Pivet.
While ministers are normally not allowed to vote in the National Assembly, the 17 members of the outgoing government still took part in the contest given that their resignations had been formally accepted and they are now serving in a caretaker capacity. Braun-Pivet ended up beating Chassaigne by 14 votes.
“We see how Macron is locking power,” Green lawmaker Sandrine Rousseau told French broadcaster TF1 on Friday, adding the left-wing alliance was considering legal action over the participation of the ministers. Experts disagree over whether the fact that the ministers voted is constitutional.
The far-right National Rally party criticized the move, with MP Jean-Philippe Tanguy calling it “close to a corruption of power.”
Watchers of French politics don’t expect a government to be formed any time soon. “Europe continues to live with France ‘hanging in the air,’” Armin Steinbach, a professor of EU law economics at HEC Paris, said.
