File picture of CGT union secretary general Sophie Binet. File
| Photo Credit: AP

With just 15 days before the start of the Olympic Games in Paris, a leader of a major French union on July 11 called for mass strikes to pressure President Emmanuel Macron into “respecting the results” of recent legislative elections and allow a leftist coalition to form a new government.

France has been at the brink of a governing paralysis since Sunday’s vote for the National Assembly, the influential lower house of parliament, resulted in a legislature split between three political groupings: the New Popular Front leftist coalition, Macron’s centrist allies and the far-right National Rally of Marine Le Pen.

The New Popular Front alliance won the most seats in the legislature, but fell short of an outright majority to govern on its own. The alliance’s three main parties, the hard-left France Unbowed, the Socialists and the Greens, have urged the president to turn to them to form the new government.

Sophie Binet, the general secretary of the CGT union, said in an interview with French broadcaster LCI Thursday that if Macron did not respect the results of the election, “he risks once again plunging the country into chaos.”

Binet said the president should allow the New Popular Front to form the new government, although the leftist alliance has not yet proposed a candidate for prime minister because of internal divisions. She called on union members to take to the streets and “join rallies to put the National Assembly under surveillance.”

“There must be popular, citizens’ pressure so that the elections’ results are respected,” Binet said.

Macron has asked his prime minister, Gabriel Attal, to continue handling day-to-day affairs, despite Attal’s offer of resignation. On Wednesday, Macron said he will wait for the country’s political parties to build a broad consensus at the National Assembly before he can decide on a new prime minister, infuriating the leftist coalition and the unions.

The new legislature’s inaugural session is scheduled for July 18.

CGT railway workers called for nationwide rallies on July 18 in front of the prefectures and near the National Assembly in Paris to demand the New Popular Front be allowed to form a government, according to the union’s statement.

The social situation in France was already tense before the political turmoil unleashed by the early legislative elections. There were protests from teachers, police officers and farmers that followed huge demonstrations last year against a rise in the retirement age.

Macron called the surprise snap election after the anti-immigration National Rally made huge gains in the June 9 European elections — a risky gamble in the hope that French voters would block the far-right party as they always had in the past.

The leader of the CFDT union, Marylise Léon, said problems are still acutely felt by many working people. She said Macron’s reluctance to name a new prime minister whose government could start addressing them is concerning.

“The expectations of workers around purchasing power and working conditions have not disappeared,” Léon said in an interview with broadcaster France Inter Thursday. “To strike is sometimes the only way to be able to unblock a situation.”

She said the union would not rule out strikes during the July 26-Aug. 11 Olympics “in certain sectors if social dialogue breaks down,” including in private security and at the Paris airports. However, she added, “the goal of CFDT is not to block the Olympics.”

French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, left, and French President Emmanuel Macron.
| Photo Credit: AP

French President Emmanual Macron refused the resignation of the country’s Prime Minister, asking him on July 8 to remain temporarily as the head of the government after chaotic election results left the government in limbo.

French voters split the legislature on the left, center and far-right, leaving no faction even close to the majority needed to form a government. The results from July 7 (Sunday’s) vote raised the risk of paralysis for the European Union’s second-largest economy.

President Emmanuel Macron gambled that his decision to call snap elections would give France a “moment of clarification,” but the outcome showed the opposite, less than three weeks before the start of the Paris Olympics thrusts the country on the international stage.

France’s main share index opened with a dip, but quickly recovered, possibly because markets had feared an outright victory for the far right or the leftist coalition.

Prime Minister Gabriel Attal had said he would remain in office if needed but offered his resignation Monday morning. Mr. Macron, who named him just seven months ago, immediately asked him to stay on “to ensure the stability of the country.”

Mr. Attal on July 7 made clear that he disagreed with Mr. Macron’s decision to call the surprise elections. The results of two rounds of voting left no obvious path to form a government for either the leftist coalition that came in first, Mr. Macron’s centrist alliance, or the far right.

Olivier Faure, First Secretary of the Socialist Party
| Photo Credit: AP

The French left will choose a candidate for prime minister from within their victorious electoral coalition within the week, Socialist Party leader Olivier Faure said on July 8.

Also Read: An overview of the French elections | Explained

Mr. Faure’s socialists are one of the left-wing parties that make up the New Popular Front (NFP), the alliance that won the most seats – but no outright majority – in Sunday’s parliamentary election.

French Government spokesperson Prisca Thevenot leaves following the weekly cabinet meeting at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France, June 26, 2024.
| Photo Credit: REUTERS

Just days before a high-stakes legislative election, French government spokesperson Prisca Thevenot was attacked on the campaign trail, officials said on July 4.

Ms. Thevenot, a candidate for the Macron-led centrist alliance Ensemble, her deputy and a party activist were putting up electoral posters near Paris on July 3 night ahead of the July 7 legislative election when a group attacked them, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal said on the social media platform X.

Media outlets reported that Ms. Thevenot was not injured and will continue to campaign, but her deputy and the party activist were taken to a hospital. It was not immediately clear what type of injuries they suffered.

The prosecutor’s office said it opened an investigation into an assault with a weapon against a public official, but provided no indication of what the motivation of the attack was.

Four people, including three minors, are in custody, prosecutors said.

France’s President Emmanuel Macron leaves the polling booth prior to cast his vote in the first round of parliamentary elections at a polling station in Le Touquet, northern France on June 30, 2024. A divided France is voting in high-stakes parliamentary elections that could see the anti-immigrant and eurosceptic party of Marine Le Pen sweep to power in a historic first. The candidates formally ended their frantic campaigns at midnight June 28, with political activity banned until the first round of voting.
| Photo Credit: AFP

French President Emmanuel Macron and his allies were on July 1 beginning a week of intense campaigning ahead of the second round of legislative elections to prevent the far-right from taking an absolute majority and control of government in a historic first.

The far-right National Rally (RN) party of Marine Le Pen won a resounding victory in the first round of the polls on June 30, with Mr. Macron’s centrists trailing in third behind a left-wing coalition.

But the key suspense ahead of the second round on July 7 was whether the RN would win an absolute majority in the new National Assembly, enabling it to form a government and make Ms. Le Pen’s protege Jordan Bardella, 28, Prime Minister.

Most projections published by French polling organisations showed the RN falling short of an absolute majority, but the final outcome remains far from certain.

A hung parliament could lead to months of political paralysis and chaos — just as Paris is preparing to host the Olympic Games this summer, and while France on the international stage takes a prime role in backing Ukraine against the Russian invasion.

French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, who is likely to be forced to resign after the second round, warned that the far-right was now at the “gates of power”.

The RN should not get a “single vote” in the second round, he said.

“We have seven days to spare France from catastrophe,” said Raphael Glucksmann, a key figure in the left-wing alliance.

‘Thrown under a bus’

The RN garnered 33% of the vote, compared to 28% for the left-wing New Popular Front alliance, and more than 20% for Mr. Macron’s centrist camp, according to preliminary results.

But with less than 100 seats being decided outright in the first round, the final composition of the 577-seat National Assembly will only be clear after the second phase.

The second round will see a three-way or two-way run-off in the remainder of the seats to be decided, with Mr. Macron’s camp hoping that tactical voting will prevent the RN winning the 289 seats needed for an absolute majority.

The French stock market, which had been under considerable pressure in June amid the political uncertainty, also rallied in early trading on hopes the RN would not win an absolute majority.

Mr. Macron in a written statement urged a “broad” coalition against the far-right in the second round, amid controversy among supporters over whether they should tactically vote for the left where needed in the second round.

Late on Sunday, the police said some 8,000 left-wing supporters thronged the Place de la Republique in central Paris to denounce the prospect of the far right taking power.

Risk analysis firm Eurasia Group said the RN now looked “likely” to fall short of an absolute majority.

France was facing “at least 12 months with a rancorously blocked National Assembly and — at best — a technocratic government of ‘national unity’ with limited capacity to govern”, it added.

The left-leaning newspaper Liberation in an editorial called on Macron to remove all his alliance’s candidates from districts when they had arrived in third place to give the left-wing alliance a chance.

“The head of State has thrown France under the bus. The bus has continued its course unimpeded, and is now parked in front of the gates of Matignon”, the prime minister’s office, it said.

‘Prime Minister of all French’

The arrival of the anti-immigration and eurosceptic RN in government would be a turning point in French modern history: the first time a far-right force has taken power in the country since World War II, when it was occupied by Nazi Germany.

Mr. Bardella said he wanted to be the “prime minister of all French”.

This would create a tense period of “cohabitation” with Mr. Macron, who has vowed to serve out his term until 2027.

Mr. Bardella has said he will only form a government if the RN wins an absolute majority in the elections.

Rancour remained over Mr. Macron’s decision to call the election in the first place, a move he took with only a tight circle of advisers in the hours after his party was trounced by the RN in European elections this month.

The chaos risks damaging the international credibility of Mr. Macron, regarded by some as the European Union’s number-one leader and who immediately after the second round will attend the NATO summit in Washington.

The right-wing Le Figaro in its editorial lamented a “disaster” brought about by the “unfathomable lightness of a man, through narcissist rancour, took the risk of plunging his country into chaos”.