Emmanuel Macron has called on political parties to “rise to the occasion and work together” to build a mainstream coalition with a solid majority after voters in a snap election returned a hung parliament with no obvious route to a government, reports The Guardian.
The French president, who has not spoken publicly since Sunday’s second round vote, said in a letter to the country that nobody had won the election, in which a left-green alliance come top but fell far short of an absolute majority.
“No political force has a sufficient majority, and the blocs that have emerged are all minorities,” Macron said on Wednesday.
He called on all parties “that identify with republican institutions, rule of law, parliamentarianism, a pro-European stance and French independence to have a sincere, loyal dialogue to build a solid – necessarily plural – majority for the country.”
His wording appeared designed to exclude Marine Le Pen’s National Rally (RN), but also implicitly the radical left France Unbowed (LFI) of Jean-Luc Mélenchon, which is the largest party in the New Popular Front (NFP) alliance that emerged as the surprise election winner.
NFP, which also includes the centre-left socialist, green and communist parties, won 182 of the assembly’s 577 seats and can count on the support of another 10 or so left-leaning MPs, while Macron’s centrist coalition returned 168 MPs. The pre-vote frontrunner, the far-rightRN, was third with 143.
The NFP has since said that, as the largest bloc in the new assembly, it must be allowed to field the next prime minister and implement “our programme, all of our programme, and nothing but our programme”.
Many in Macron’s centrist camp, however, echoed by MPs from the centre-right Les Républicains (LR), have said they would not support an NFP-led government and would back a no-confidence motion against a cabinet featuring members from LFI.