France: Macron's Ally Wins Re-election as National Assembly Speaker

Facts

• Yaël Braun-Pivet of French Pres. Emmanuel Macron's centrist party, the first-ever female speaker of the National Assembly, was re-elected on Thursday after three rounds of voting.¹
• With the support of some conservative lawmakers, she secured 220 votes in the third round to defeat left-wing coalition candidate André Chassaigne and right-wing candidate Sébastien Chenu, who received 207 and 141 votes, respectively.²
• This comes as Macron accepted this week the resignation of Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, who has stayed on in a caretaker role, to allow cabinet members who won seats in the National Assembly to vote on the election of its next speaker.³
• The fourth-highest position in the French government organizes and moderates debates in the National Assembly and appoints three of the nine members of the country's Constitutional Council.⁴
• Snap parliamentary elections this month delivered a hung National Assembly, as the leftist New Popular Front (NFP) won 190 seats, Macron's Renaissance 150, and right-wing National Rally 142 in the 577-seat chamber.⁵
• The center-right Republican Right, formally registered as an opposition group, said on Friday that its lawmakers voted to elect Braun-Pivet to avoid a 'communist,' dismissing a possible coalition with Macron and his allies to form a new government.⁶

Sources: ¹Euronews, ²Le Monde.fr, ³Wsj, ⁴France 24, ⁵New York Times and ⁶POLITICO.

Narratives

• Pro-establishment narrative, as provided by POLITICO. The victory of the leaderless leftist alliance in the snap parliamentary election has surprised even its four founding parties, and now their coalition is on the brink of falling apart because its members cannot agree on a prime ministerial candidate. It's likely that the Socialist Party would soon breakaway from its radical allies and join a mainstream coalition.
• Left narrative, as provided by Jacobin. That Macron and his centrist allies are still in denial doesn't affect the fact that the French people have given a clear mandate to the leftist NFP. Therefore, his moves to deny the largest alliance its chance to form a new government and grab power through covert plots indicate his undemocratic disregard for the popular vote.
• Right narrative, as provided by Europeanconservative. Though the left has secured most seats in the National Assembly and Macron remains in power, France is on the right — as proven by the number of votes. If history can teach us anything, all this political chaos the country is experiencing right now indicates that a new dawn is coming — one in which the right will be the only possible opposition.