A total of 577 constituencies were up for election today. Each one gave one seat in the French National Assembly.
Of the 577 seats in Parliament, 76 had already been declared elected since the first round last Sunday.
These were distributed as follows:
- National Rally: 39
- New Popular Front: 32
- Together: 2
- Republicans: 1
- Others: 2
Therefore, there were 501 seats left to be decided on Sunday.
Both the left-wing New Popular Front and Mazi (the coalition of centrist parties supporting Macron) withdrew more than 200 candidates from the second round so that the remaining candidate would have a better chance of defeating (any) Le Pen candidate in the districts that were considered.
After all, history has shown that the fragmented political landscape has always favored the extreme right.
But even the most recent opinion polls – carried out after the candidates had withdrawn – show that this strategy was bearing fruit and the most likely scenario would be a parliament without an absolute majority, Reuters commented ahead of the exit polls.
Finally, there was a reversal as the majority of seats went to the New Popular Front.
What happens if there is no agreement?
The situation is unprecedented. Because the French parliament is now divided into three large blocs without any tradition of political cooperation. France is not Italy in that case.
Given that none of the three groups – the far right, Macron’s centrist alliance or the left – can govern alone (most likely), nor can they reach a coalition agreement or even provide the guarantee that they can lead a viable minority government, then France will risk political paralysis: with little or no legislative work and a caretaker government managing current (basic) affairs.
Is there a chance Macron will resign?
Macron ruled that out before Sunday. After the result, he contented himself with the French presidency’s announcement that it was studying its next steps once the full picture was in place.
But such a thought (resignation) may seem more attractive to him if the country is threatened with complete political paralysis, Reuters commented. It should be noted that neither parliament nor the government can force a French president to resign.
New elections?
We also recall that the French Constitution does not provide for new parliamentary elections within a year of the current one, so an immediate repeat of the vote is not on the near horizon.