PARIS (Reuters) -President Emmanuel Macron could lose his outright majority in France’s parliament and the capacity to push through his economic reform agenda with an unfastened hand after a robust displaying by a new left-wing alliance inside the first spherical of voting.
Macron’s centrist alliance and the NUPES coalition led by the hard-left veteran Jean-Luc Melenchon gained 26% of the vote amid record abstentions on Sunday. However, it’s far from the June 19 2d spherical on my own to decide the division of seats.
Elabe projected Macron’s Ensemble! The alliance would win among 260-295 National Assembly seats – with the mark for an outright majority set at 289 seats – and the left could secure 160-210 seats, a massive increase from 2017.
“Come out and vote next Sunday to reject the evil politics of Mr. Macron,” Melenchon tweeted after Sunday’s vote.
Suppose Macron’s centrist alliance loses its outright majority in the run-off spherical. In that case, the president might be forced into making messy pacts with factions of the center proper or center-left who refuse to align with Melenchon on an invoice-by-way of-invoice foundation.
It could also trigger a cupboard reshuffle.
Macron’s ability to skip reforms consisting of a contested pension reform that might see the French paintings longer, a change the previous funding banker says is essential to make certain long-term order to the general public price range.
His opponents on the left are pushing to reduce the pension age and release a massive spending pressure as surging inflation drives the value of residing better and erodes wages. Melenchon depicts Macron as an economic liberal who protects the wealthy and now not difficult-up families.
Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne defended the ruling celebration’s performance on Sunday.
“Contrary to the words of Mr. Melenchon, who without a doubt has a hassle with reality, we’re the political pressure that has the most applicants in the 2nd spherical, there are applicants from the presidential majority in three-quarters of constituencies, and we will mobilize this week to win a clear and strong majority,” she told reporters in her Calvados constituency.
INVESTOR JITTERS
However, in a sign of investor unease at the possibility of Macron dropping complete management of the lower house, French banking stocks fell in Monday trading.
France’s third-largest indexed financial institution Societe Generale had dropped 3.6% by using 0850 GMT, underperforming the CAC40 index, which became down 2.1%. Its large peers, BNP Paribas and Credit Agricole, misplaced 2.Eight% and 3.2%, respectively.
“A nervy wait beforehand of the second round,” Deutsche Bank wrote in a client briefing word.
No poll shows NUPES triumphing in a ruling majority – a situation that might plunge the euro zone’s second-largest economy into a risky duration of cohabitation, where the president and high minister come from distinct political companies.
Ensemble! Received 25.75% of the popular vote even as the NUPES bloc secured 25.66%, in line with the Interior Ministry’s final tally.
Several Melenchon allies accused Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin of manipulating the matter by now, not including a few applicants who publicly stated they supported the left-wing alliance inside the bloc’s tally.
The Interior Ministry no longer directly replied to a request for comment. Budget Minister Gabriel Attal stated: “(The left) always call into question the figures … It is their specialty.”
(Reporting by way of Tassilo Hummel; Additional reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta, Elizabeth Pineau, and Richard Lough; Writing by way of Richard Lough; Editing via Robert Birsel; Catherine Evans and Alison Williams)
