French Union Boss Hints At Protests During Olympics

A trade union leader has urged President Emmanuel Macron to ensure a left-wing alliance is allowed to govern after a surprise win in France’s snap election – hinting yesterday that any alternative could be met with protests during the Paris Olympics.

- RACHEL HAGAN

Breaking his silence since the New Popular Front (NFP) grouping – which spans the radical and centre-left and greens – beat his own centrist camp into second place in Sunday’s election, Mr Macron issued an open letter on Wednesday claiming that “no one had won” and asked “republican forces” to form a “solid majority” to govern.

The French president called the snap election in the wake of large gains made by Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally (RN) party in European elections in June. RN then performed strongly in the first round of voting in the French parliamentary elections, before an agreement by the leftist bloc and Macron’s Together grouping meant that more than 200 candidates dropped out before the second round in an effort to prevent the vote against RN from being split.

The result was NFP winning around 180 seats in the 577-seat parliament, Macron’s group around 160 and Le Pen’s party around 140. All three blocs are more than 100 seats short of an absolute majority of 289 seats. With weeks of talks expected over who could become the next prime minister, and what a government will look like, Mr Macron’s ally and current prime minister Gabriel Attal offered his resignation but has been asked to stay on by Mr Macron.