Macron Seeks To Salvage Power After France Vote Upset

French President Emmanuel Macron and his allies on Monday were scrambling for a way out of political deadlock after losing their parliamentary majority in a stunning blow for the president and his reform plans

Paris, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 20th Jun, 2022 ) :French President Emmanuel Macron and his allies on Monday were scrambling for a way out of political deadlock after losing their parliamentary majority in a stunning blow for the president and his reform plans.

Macron's Ensemble (Together) coalition emerged as the largest party in Sunday's National Assembly vote, but was dozens of seats short of keeping the parliamentary majority it had enjoyed for the last five years.

Surges on the left and the far-right destroyed the dominant position of Macron's deputies who, for the past five years, had backed the president's policies without fail.

Turnout was low, with the abstention rate recorded at 53.77 percent.

The left-leaning Liberation daily called the result a "slap in the face" for Macron, while the conservative Le Figaro said he was now "faced with an ungovernable France".

Macron's Together alliance won 244 seats, far short of the 289 needed for an overall majority.

The election saw the new left-wing alliance NUPES make gains to become the main opposition force along with its allies on 137 seats, according to the Interior Ministry.

But it is unclear if the coalition of Socialists, Communists, Greens and the hard-left France Unbowed will remain a united bloc in the National Assembly.

Meanwhile the far-right under Marine Le Pen posted the best legislative performance in its history, becoming the strongest single opposition party with 89 seats, up from eight in the outgoing chamber.

A confident Le Pen said her party would demand to chair the National Assembly's powerful finance commission, as is tradition for the biggest opposition party.

"The country is not ungovernable, but it's not going to be governed the way Emmanuel Macron wanted," Le Pen told reporters Monday.

Le Pen said she would now give up her party's leadership and focus instead on running her parliamentary group.