Bloomberg/Gregory Viscusi, Helene Fouquet & Marc Champion/05-11-17
On June 11, French voters will return to the polls for legislative elections, followed by a runoff a week later for districts where no candidate wins outright—typically most of them. While the president’s party often gains a majority or a strong plurality in the National Assembly, this year things look different. For the first time, France’s two main parties were absent from the second round of the presidential election, and they’re seeking to use the legislative vote to bounce back. Macron, meanwhile, has never held elected office. He founded his party just over a year ago and has little on-the-ground infrastructure to field candidates or get voters to the polls. “Macron’s biggest challenge is to win the battle for Parliament,” says Dominique Reynié, a politics professor at Sciences Po university in Paris. “Without a majority, he’d have only limited power.”
PG View: A politically hamstrung President means the status quo will prevail in France. Status quo is the last thing the people of France want . . .
