France has been plunged into political chaos after the left-wing New Popular Front (NPF) won parliamentary elections but fell short of an absolute majority.
The surprise outcome brought claims that the country could be ungovernable, with no parties able to pass legislation, only two weeks before Paris hosts the summer Olympics. The scenario is without precedent since the Fifth French Republic was created by General de Gaulle in 1958.
There were claims that France may need a new constitution if President Macron is unable to build a rainbow coalition.
• French election results: latest news and reaction
Gabriel Attal, 35, his prime minister, said he would resign on Monday but may be asked to carry on in a caretaker role until after the Olympics. Attal said: “No majority has emerged … tomorrow a new era will begin.”
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Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the radical left-wing leader who is often compared to Jeremy Corbyn, claimed victory and demanded that the front be allowed to form a government.
In a speech to supporters, Mélenchon, 72, pledged to implement a hard-left programme that includes a 14 per cent rise in the minimum wage, a ban on increasing the price of essential goods and a reduction in the age for a state pension from 64 to 60.
He also pledged to implement public spending increases of at least €150 billion over the next five years, to be financed by tax rises.
• Why Macron pressed the nuclear button of snap elections
The left-winger, who has been accused of antisemitism over his criticism of Israel, said the NPF had emerged victorious in the election called by President Macron and was “ready to govern”. Commentators said that France was facing a period of uncertainty with a hung parliament and no camp able to obtain a majority on its own.
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Mélenchon said: “The defeat of the president and his coalition has been clearly confirmed. The president must … admit his defeat.”
However, Macron’s allies rebuffed his demands, saying that the left had secured too few MPs to run the country. In a wholly unexpected result, the left-wing NPF was on course to win between 182 and 193 seats in the 577-seat National Assembly, according to an exit poll by the Elabe Institute — more than any other party but well short of the absolute majority of 289.
• What does the New Popular Front’s election win mean for France?
The performance is a triumph for the alliance that includes the mainstream Socialists but also Mélenchon’s radical France Unbowed party. Yet despite the rhetoric, the NPF would need the support of other parties to pass legislation and all have ruled out working with Mélenchon.
Left-wingers suggested that they could push through swathes of policies without legislating and insisted that Macron should ask a member of the NPF to become prime minister. The front has refused to say who would be its candidate for this role, and may now wrangle internally over the question. Mélenchon’s friends said he was the obvious choice.
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Stéphane Séjourné, the foreign affairs minister, said it was obvious that Mélenchon and his allies could not govern the country.
The populist hard-right National Rally, which triumphed in the first round of the elections last week, suffered a big setback in the second round to end up third, pollsters said. Blocked by electoral agreements between Macron’s centrists and the NPF, Elabe said it would win between 136 and 144 seats.
The party leader, Marine Le Pen, 55, said the Rally’s victory had “only been postponed. The tide is rising. It has not risen high enough this time but it is continuing to rise.”
Jordan Bardella, 28, the Rally’s chairman, claimed that it had been deprived of victory by an “unnatural alliance” between Macron’s camp and the left.
The hopes of Le Pen and Bardella were dashed when 131 leftwingers withdrew from the election in constituencies where centrists had a better chance of beating the populist right in the second round, while 81 centrists did likewise to favour the left.
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Bardella said: “Unfortunately this unnatural alliance of Macron with the extreme left deprives the French of the path of recovery. These agreements have thrown France into the arms of the extreme left.”
He predicted deadlock and weeks of back room negotiations to find a new government. “France is deprived of a majority because of the arrangement between an isolated president and an incendiary left,” he added.
Macron witnessed the decline of his centrists but was nevertheless on course to win up to 163 MPs, according to Elabe. The result was much better than Macron, whose presidential term of office is due to end in 2027, had feared. Commentators said that he had been hurt, though not fatally, after gambling on the parliamentary elections.
The 46-year-old head of state surprised the French political class, including members of his own government, when he dissolved parliament after his centrists were trounced by the Rally in last month’s European elections. His alliance had had a relative majority of 250 seats in the outgoing parliament.
“France needs a clear majority to act with serenity and concord,” Macron said as he announced the snap elections. The result is anything but a clear majority, commentators said.
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Anticipating an attempt by Macron to split the NPF and to form a rainbow coalition that could include moderate Socialists, Mélenchon said: “The will of the people must be strictly respected. No subterfuge or arrangement will be acceptable. The president has the power and the duty to call the New Popular Front to form the government. It is ready. The New Popular Front will … apply its programme and nothing but its programme.”
The leftist coalition estimates that its policies will cost at least €150 billion over the next three years, although Macron’s allies say the true cost will be nearer €300 billion.
Mélenchon said voters had “clearly ruled out the worst” outcome, which was a victory for the Rally. “It is an immense relief for the crushing majority of people in our country. These people felt terribly threatened. Now it is sure that they have won.”
The interior ministry had feared riots in the event of a victory for the populist right. Instead, thousands of leftwingers celebrated in central Paris, their mood euphoric after a victory that few had foreseen. However, the mood soon soured in the Place de la République in the capital as about 500 extremists clashed with the police.
There was also trouble in Rennes in Brittany and Nantes on the Atlantic coast as dozens of demonstrators from ultra-left groups fought with forces of law and order to chants of “everyone hates the police”.
Macron, for his part, was reported to have telephoned François Hollande, the Socialist who was once his mentor and is now his adversary. Hollande, who was elected as an MP, has been described as a potential prime minister able to unite the moderate left with Macron’s centrists. The former president, who left office in 2017 with rock bottom ratings, said he was not a candidate to lead the government.
