By: Henry Wei

The result of a recent French election was a hung parliment, which means no party won overall. French President Emmanuel Macron called a snap election in June hoping to make his party win and expose extremists. But, the New Popular Front alliance, a left sided party, had the most seats but not enough to govern by its self.

In the first round of voting on June 30, the National Rally party was first, so people thought they would win in the second round. But, in second round, on July 7, the New Popular Front was first, President Macron’s Ensemble alliance in second, and the National Rally in third place.

The French parliament has 577 seats. For a party to govern independently, it needs 289 seats. Even though New Popular Front won the most seats being 182, they did not get 289, which made a hung parliament. A hung parliament is when no single party wins more seats than all the others combined. The party with the most seats needs alliances with other parties to achieve a working majority. In this case, the New Popular Front, is already working with other groups, needs more to be able to win.

President Emmanuel Macron must work with the newly formed government which needs the majority from the National Assembly. The vote shows how unstable government formation is, and how working with other groups can help achieve common political goals.

Image Credit by Andrew Taylor