Macron camp seeks allies after poll rout

FRANCE: President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist camp scrambled on Monday to secure support from rivals to salvage some of its reform agenda after weekend elections delivered a fragmented Parliament that leaves France at risk of political paralysis.

The loss of his Ensemble alliance’s absolute majority is a bitter setback for Macron, himself elected for a second term in April. French governments have long been used to having a Lower House of Parliament that shares their political line and largely rubber-stamps proposals.

Sunday’s second-round vote left Ensemble as the biggest party, with a fledgling leftwing alliance determined to make its voice heard in second place, the far-right stronger than ever and the conservatives as potential kingmakers.

“It’s going to be complicated,” Government Spokeswoman Olivia Gregoire told France Inter radio. “We’re going to have to be creative.”

Losing control of Parliament means Macron will need to shed his top-down approach to politics, which he himself called “Jupiterian”.

– FINANCIAL POST