Reactions from key leaders after France’s parliamentary elections

The leader of New Popular Front, Jean-Luc Melenchoncalled this Sunday, after the victory of his coalition in the second round of the French legislative elections, to the President, Emmanuel Macron, to entrust them with the formation of a government.

Macron “has the duty to call the New Popular Front to govern,” Mélenchon said before his supporters gathered in Paris. “The prime minister must go” and Macron “must give in and admit this defeat, without trying to avoid it in any way.” “The president has the power, he has the duty to call the New Popular Front to govern,” the leftist leader stressed.

Mélenchon has emphasized his “huge relief” at the defeat without palliatives for the candidacies of the far-right party National Group. “This afternoon, the National Group is far from an absolute majority (…). Our people have clearly ruled out the worst solution. Our people have voted conscientiously. I salute the efforts and the mobilization,” he stressed.

As for possible post-election agreements, Mélenchon has done so outright rejected any possibility of agree with centrism under Macron’s leadership. “We refuse to enter into negotiations with his party to make combinations, especially after having mercilessly criticized his policy of social abuse for seven years,” he argued. “The lessons of the vote are clear: the defeat of the President of the Republic is clearly confirmed,” he added.

“The polls have decided. The New Popular Front is ready to govern. Its components, united on the left, have faced the historical circumstances and have thwarted the trap for the country. Once again, they have saved the Republic,” he added.

The far right sees the results as progress

By means of National GroupThe first to react was the President, Jordan Bardella, who criticized the “unnatural” political alliances that brought victory to the New Popular Front.

“These electoral agreements throw France into the arms of Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s far left this afternoon,” Bardella denounced his supporters. These “unnatural political alliances” tried “in every possible way to prevent the French from freely choosing a different policy,” he noted. In this sense, he stressed that his party “is today making the most important progress in its entire history.”

Bardella has assured that his party “embodies more than ever the only alternation” that the “single party” is facing. He has criticized Macron in particular, who “has not limited himself to pushing the country towards uncertainty and instability”, but also “has deprived the French for months of any response to their daily difficulties in the midst of a purchasing power crisis”.

The French far-right leader Marine Le Pen He regretted his party’s defeat in last Sunday’s parliamentary elections, but recalled that they have doubled their support, which he said “lays the foundation for a future victory”.

“This is a delayed victory,” said Le Pen, who has not called for the resignation of President Emmanuel Macron despite what she saw as a “failure” by the head of state.

According to the projections, the New Popular Front is the formation with the most deputies (187-199), followed by Macron’s Together for the Republic (164-169 deputies) and the National Rally (135-143 deputies). The National Assembly has 577 seats, so the absolute majority is 289.