On Friday, the Republican Right, which is formally registered as an opposition group, was quick to pour cold water on those expectations.
“We weren’t going to elect a communist to head the National Assembly,” Republican Right lawmaker Annie Genevard said in an interview with Europe1 on Friday, explaining why they elected to vote for Macron’s ally Yaël Braun-Pivet over the communist lawmaker André Chassaigne.
“We were elected as opponents to Emmanuel Macron, within an independent right,” she added. “This isn’t related.”
Other parties in the National Assembly described Braun-Pivet’s reelection as an anti-democratic power grab following a first-place finish in the legislative by the New Popular Front, a broad, left-wing coalition that has struggled to remain united since winning election.
Cross-party compromise is rare in French politics, but with the left finishing with too few seats to reach an absolute majority in the snap vote, it was always vulnerable to being topped by some sort of coalition among its opponents.
Socialist leader Olivier Faure called the election of a Macron ally following defeats for the president’s party in both the European and legislative elections “the height of denial of democracy.”