PARIS – Many weeks later President Emmanuel Macron re-electedVoters in France return to the polls on Sunday to choose their parliamentary representative, an election that will decide whether Mr. Macron’s bills go smoothly or stumble before the legislature in a second term. his two.
All 577 seats are contested in the National Assembly, France’s powerful and lower lower house, which Mr. Macron’s party and its allies currently control. Most polls predict that will remain the case – to some extent.
Modern France President and parliamentary elections are held only a few months apart, following the same five-year cycle. For the past two decades, voters have consistently enjoyed a strong presidential-elected congressional support, and opinion polls and experts say this will also be a likely outcome. happened to Mr. Macron this time.
His biggest challenge comes from a consolidated coalition of leftist French forces, which have taken the rare step of setting aside personal disputes and ideological differences to build a new front. unification battle. Jean-Luc Mélenchon, leader of the Left France Unbowed party, the dominant force in that coalition, is hoping it can secure a narrow victory and force Mr. Macron to appoint himself prime minister.
But so far, according to recent surveys, voters have been more concerned rising inflation by the campaign, and pollsters say they expect record low turnout.
Below is a summary of the election, which will be held in two rounds, on Sunday and on June 19.
What is at stake?
The President holds France most powerful political office, with wide capacity to administer by decree. But they need Parliament, and Congress in particular, to accomplish most of their larger domestic policy goals, push through spending bills or change the Constitution.
Emmanuel Macron’s second term as President of France
With the re-election of Emmanuel Macron, French voters backed his promise of stability in the face of the temptation of an extremist group.
Some of Macron’s prominent campaign promises, like his vow to raise the legal retirement age, require legislation. His new government also wants to address the effects of inflation, asking lawmakers to vote on measures such as food subsidies.
The key players in the election are:
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Ensemble, a centrist coalition that includes La République en Marche, the party Mr. Macron founded and won in 2017 with new wave of political entrants as candidates.
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La Nouvelle Populaire Écologique et Sociale, commonly known by its abbreviation NUPES, is a left-wing coalition brought together by Mr. Mélenchon’s France Unbowed party consisting of the Socialists, Greens and Communists.
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A group of traditional right-wing parties, led by Les Républicains, the conservative fundamentalist faction.
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Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally group, who defeated by Mr. Macron during the presidential birth in April.
The latest polls show Ensemble and NUPES as ancient, with about 25 to 28 percent each. The National Rally is predicted to receive about 20 to 21 percent of the vote, with Les Républicains around 10 to 11 percent. Smaller groups, including those of Éric Zemmour, a far-right expert who ran for president, is voting in single digits.
If Mr. Macron’s party alone gets an absolute majority – 289 seats – he will have relatively liberal control to enact his legislative agenda. A repeat of the current situation, in which his party and its allies have an absolute majority, will make him dependent on the coalition to pass some legislation. But if his party and its allies lose too much ground, they may be forced to contact lawmakers from opposition parties about certain bills. And if NUPES can secure control of Parliament, it will force Mr Macron to appoint a new prime minister and a new cabinet, potentially thwarting much of his agenda.
How are the elections?
France’s 577 constituencies include the mainland, overseas departments and territories, as well as French citizens living abroad. Each district has one seat. More than 6,200 candidates are running nationwide.
Any number of contestants can compete in round one in each district, but there are specific thresholds for making it to round two. While in most cases the flow will have the top two vote recipients, it can sometimes have three or even four of them. Whoever gets the most votes in that race wins the race. (Under some conditions, the candidate who gets more than 50 percent of the vote in the first round wins outright.)
The two-ring system usually provides much of the stability that French governments can rely on, but it comes at a heavy cost. The structure of Congress does not always accurately reflect the broader political landscape of the country and is often skewed towards larger parties. Smaller people complain that their voters don’t get the representation they deserve, fueling discontent with the political system.
French presidential candidates, including Mr Macron, have repeatedly floated the idea of correcting that difference by offering a dose of proportional representation for parliamentary elections. But a bill in that regard never materialized during Mr. Macron’s first term, and it is unclear whether he would pursue the idea in a second term.
What does Congress do?
The National Assembly and the Senate – now controlled by the right – are the two houses of the French Parliament. Both are based in Paris and play important roles in drafting bills and voting laws. But only the National Assembly is directly elected by the people, and it has more power to legislate and challenge the executive.
Parliament usually has the last word if the two chambers do not agree on a bill, and it is the only country that can topple the French cabinet by a vote of no confidence. It has some key legal perks like spending or social security bills.
Lawmakers can question cabinet members; they can also form investigative committees and hold hearings, although their powers and scope of investigation are more limited than those of Congress in the United States.
Unless the president dissolves Congress and calls new elections – a move rarely attempted – lawmakers will be in power for five years.
What is next?
The last polling stations close at 8pm on Election Day, which is when the French media will work with pollsters to announce First tentative results based on preliminary counts. Races will be called by district as the evening progresses.
Those early results will tell each side’s position and the direction of each race, but the final composition of Congress will only become clear after qualifying.
Several ministers are running in the election, including Elisabeth Borne, prime minister. Their races will be closely watched, as losing one or several of them would be seen as a rebuke to Mr Macron, who has warned that those not elected will leave his cabinet. .
