With no bloc in the French parliament winning an absolute majority in yesterday's French general election, it is unclear what will happen next. It will be very difficult for the different blocs to find ways of working together in the near future, Flemish France expert Rony Van Gastel says. The New Popular Front with Jean-Luc Mélanchon’s hard left France Unbowed, President Macron’s Together and Marine Le Pen’s Nationally Rally all have large showings in the French national assembly, the lower house of the French parliament, but nobody has an overall majority.
French politics is in uncharted territory due to the election results that have uncovered great divisions. Van Gastel believes forming a new government is likely to take a very long time. People have already been talking about a "Belgian scenario", referring to Belgium’s past track record of protracted government formation talks.
How did it come to such a surprising result with the National Rally trailing both the New Popular Front and Together after coming first last week? Flemish France expert Rony Van Gastel points to the French electoral system, which works non-proportionally, but in which each party must try to become the largest party in each of the 577 constituencies.
Van Gastel also notes that there was an extremely high turnout yesterday: more than 2 in 3 voters turned up at a polling station. It is thought that many people went to vote to prevent the far right from taking the seat.
In France, people speak of a 'Republican front', the French equivalent of the Belgium ‘cordon sanitaire’, erecting a dam against the far right. The National Rally’s prime minister-designate, Jordan Bardella, spoke of a "front of shame" that snatched victory from him and his party.
Steven Decraene: “Politics should not freeze out right-wing voters”
French voters sent a double message yesterday, VRT’s Steven Decraene observes. On the one hand, 2 in 3 voters clearly raised a dam against Marine Le Pen's radical-right National Rally. On the other hand, that party doubled its number of MPs in the national assembly.
The left may breathe a sigh of relief, but French politics must not forget, not freeze out, the radical-right-wing voter during the coming period, Decraene notes. If that were to happen, the left could pave the way for a strong result for Marine Le Pen in the presidential election.
What French politicians have to do now is something Belgians have a lot of experience with, Decraene adds: talking to each other, across party lines to form coalitions. But there’s much less experience of that in France, because neither the French system nor French minds are set up for this. France is promised exciting times Decraene believes.