France: National Rally Blocked From Key Positions in Parliament

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Facts

  • Marine Le Pen's right-wing National Rally — the largest single party in France's National Assembly — has ended up without any top positions within the lower chamber after its opponents denied it leadership roles.1
  • This comes as the National Rally belongs to a so-called political family that is placed third, trailing the left-wing NFP coalition and Pres. Emmanuel Macron's Ensemble (Together) coalition by 51 and 24 seats, respectively.2
  • The two-round vote for the posts on Friday had to be re-run later the same day after ballot boxes were found to contain extra envelopes, prompting allegations across the aisle of ballot-stuffing and fraud.3
  • On Monday, Macron told reporters that the French need a 'political truce' to focus on the Paris Olympics, which are set to open on Friday, indicating that he may not appoint a new prime minister before Aug. 11.4
  • Meanwhile, the center-right Republican Right proposed a 'legislative pact' to help France 'escape the purgatory of a hung parliament' and support measures to boost security and public services.5
  • The party was crucial to the reelection of Macron ally Yaël Braun-Pivet as speaker of the National Assembly but it has dismissed a possible coalition with the president to form a new government on the grounds that they were elected as opponents to Macron.6

Sources: 1RFI, 2Le Monde.fr, 3France 24, 4Bloomberg, 5Reuters and 6POLITICO.

Narratives

  • Pro-establishment narrative, as provided by New York Times. Even as they are currently in a political deadlock, left to center-right parties in France have cooperated to defeat the anti-immigrant National Rally in the battle for key positions in the National Assembly — just as they did in the second round of the elections. If there's any certainty in French politics, it's that the far-right won't be in the next government.
  • Establishment-critical narrative, as provided by Europeanconservative. The distribution of key positions within the National Assembly had traditionally been made to ensure political diversity — at least until the French made the National Rally the largest single party, as undemocratic moves have shut it out of any management roles. If the party can't exercise its representative mandate, France will have become a sham democracy.

Predictions