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French President Emmanuel Macron’s candidate to head the National Assembly was re-elected to the post on Thursday, suggesting his centrist supporters have a chance to form a new government despite being defeated in recent elections.
Yaël Braun-Pivet was elected Speaker of the new assembly after three rounds of voting by MPs, as she secured the support of conservative lawmakers and defeated alternative candidates from the left and far right.
Her re-election came despite Macron’s centrist alliance having fewer seats than the left after snap parliamentary elections he called in June. No group has a majority in the council.
“The last few weeks have been very tense,” said Braun-Pivet, who served as president in the previous assembly. “We saw the earth divided in three, the earth shattered.
Her post is the fourth most important state role in France.
André Chassaigne, a Communist Party lawmaker and the leftist alliance’s candidate for assembly president, who lost by 13 votes, said the election had been “stolen by an unnatural partnership” between Macron and the right.
His ally Mathilde Panot of the far-left La France Insoumise (France Unbowed) said the result was “a terrible signal for democracy in our country”.
A senior member of the far-right Rassemblement National (RN) Marine Le Pen, who had a big lead in the first round of the parliamentary election but lost ground in the second to the left-right “Republican Front” – angrily declared that everything will be decided again at the Elysée the palace rather than the assembly.
After the last round of elections on July 7, President Emmanuel Macron appointed his outgoing Prime Minister Gabriel Attal to remain as administrator.
The election of the speaker of the assembly has taken on particular importance as the post is seen as a possible stepping stone for one parliamentary group and its allies to win the premiership.
The president oversees parliamentary debates, makes critical nominations, such as to the Constitutional Court, and can submit bills for review.
Jean Garrigues, a historian specializing in French institutions, said before Braun-Pivet’s re-election: “The choice of the President of the Assembly is usually important, but this time it is extremely important because the person will have to guarantee the fairness of the debates.” and help create a much-needed compromise.”
He said it would also “give a signal” about who might become prime minister, “perhaps in a technical government if no political one can be formed”.
Garrigues added that a fractured parliament meant parties would have to relearn how to compromise and build coalitions.
After coming second in parliamentary elections, Macron’s centrist Ensemble group has maneuvered in recent days to prevent the winner, the left-wing Nouveau Front Populaire (NFP) alliance, from claiming the presidency of the assembly.
By winning the most seats, with around 180 MPs, the NFP – made up of the LFI, more moderate Socialists, Communists and Greens and others – should have been in pole position to become Prime Minister, but the fight could not be agreed on the candidate.
Macron, who has the power to appoint the prime minister, also ignored calls from the NFP for him to be prime minister.
Instead, he advocated a broad “pact of government” stretching from the center left to the conservative right to exclude the LFI and RN.
Attal opened talks with other party chiefs to hammer out a tight deal on a handful of legislative priorities.
The conservative party formerly known as Les Républicains, despite only having about 55 seats with its allies, struck a deal with Macron’s camp to secure certain top posts in exchange for supporting Braun-Pivet as president of the assembly.
Laurent Wauquiez, an MP who heads the conservative group, told Le Figaro newspaper that his party was also working on a “legislative pact” to propose to Macron’s camp, including measures to raise the take-home pay and reduce immigration, but stressed they were reluctant join the coalition government.
Clément Beaune, Macron’s former Europe minister, warned on Thursday night that an alliance between Macron and the right would be a “dead end” and that a “broad coalition” was needed that would include socialists, greens and communists as well as moderate conservatives.