Marine Le Pen cements her place in French mainstream as Emmanuel Macron loses majority
- raquelcamila999
- Jun 20, 2022
- 1 min read
The far-right National Rally party achieved a record result in France’s parliamentary elections on Sunday, increasing its number of National Assembly members by more than tenfold.
This success cemented the party's rise from fringe status to mainstream opposition and dealt a humbling blow to French President Emmanuel Macron, who saw his hopes of pushing through his domestic agenda stymied just two months after being re-elected for a second term.
Ms Le Pen's or National Rally — Rassemblement National in French — took 89 seats in the 577-seat parliament, according to a final tally of ballots released by the Interior Ministry.
Major pollsters last week estimated 25-50 National Rally seats. It is up from just two seats in 2012 and eight in the previous poll in 2017.
“We are facing a democratic shock because of a very strong breakthrough by the Rassemblement National,” Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said.
A confident Ms Le Pen said on Monday 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," she said.
Centrist Mr Macron became the first president in decades to fail to garner an absolute majority in parliament, falling well short of the 289-seat threshold.
However, his Ensemble alliance will still remain the largest bloc, with 245 seats in the 577-seat National Assembly.
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