Prime MINISTER Resigns?
The prime minister of France has announced his intention to step down, taking the nation into uncharted territory and perhaps into unrest. The far-left political alliance that unexpectedly came together ahead of the country’s snap elections is predicted to win the majority of parliamentary seats up for grabs.
French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal declared he would submit his resignation on Monday as the election results were published.
Estimates placed the far right in third place and President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist alliance in second place with the most seats.
Only four weeks have passed since Macron announced the early election, following the right-wing National Rally’s (RN) stunning victory in June’s European Parliamentary elections. Prior to the first voting round, polls suggested that RN would maintain its lead. Prior to the runoff, more recent polling suggests that those returns have decreased and that RN will not secure a decisive majority.
Merely 76 out of the 577 constituencies in the French National Assembly were able to choose a candidate in the first round, which took place on June 30. Sunday’s second-round runoff was for candidates who did not secure an absolute majority in the first round of voting.
France was expected to elect the RN as the main party in government heading into the election, although it was possible that no party would win a resounding majority in the fiercely contested poll.
As the results came in, the predictions shifted to the left, indicating that there was not enough support for a single alliance and raising the possibility of political and economic unrest in France.
It is anticipated that the final election results will not be known until late Sunday or early Monday.
With the emergency election, Macron took a major risk, and the odds suggest that the unpopular president and his alliance—which lost control of parliament—may not have profited from the gamble.
Even though the far-right RN currently has a significantly larger number of seats in parliament, the party was not satisfied with the outcome. With predictions placing the leftist New Popular Front alliance ahead, far-left leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon encouraged Macron to extend an invitation to the coalition to form a government.
Prior to making any choices, Macron’s office stated that the president would “wait for the new National Assembly to organize itself.”
