By: Irvin Ji

The French election has come to a deadlock, as the far left is pushing hard and the far right is just short of a majority. This leaves neither party with an absolute majority, and the French government might come to a complete political shutdown.

The three political groups, Left, Center and Right, have emerged after an election from legislature on Sunday, on the seventh of July. They have all received a good number of votes, but none gaining a majority.

Marine Le Pen’s right-wing party, who are proposing anti-immigrant acts, have dominated the voting last week, but surprisingly this round, The left wing new popular front received 178 votes, while President Emanuel Macron and Le Pen’s National Rally, with 150 and 142 votes respectively, coming in second and third.

However, now centralists and the left-wing party have decided to come together to form the new Republican Party combat Ms. Le Pen’s Nationalist party. Unexpectedly, the nationalists gained more seats, and they crushed the new Republican Party.

Jordan Barbella, the right hand of Ms. Le Pen, has said that Mr. Macron’s party is “an alliance of the dishonorable”, and that he has led the country to “uncertainty and instability.”

Alain Duhamel, a political scientist has said, “We have learned it was a very bad idea for Mr. Macron to dissolve parliament and call this election.”

The left-wing new popular front has attempted to win more votes, and promised to raise the monthly minimum wage, lower legal retirement age from 64 to 60, bring back wealth tax, freeze prices of energy and fuel, and to make the asylum process of immigration smoother.

However, this offer is unexpected, and most likely not very useful, as France has a budget issue, and immigration is causing a large part of it.

Overall, the election is at a standstill, and the two sides are pushing hard, to no avail. Stay tuned to find out more and receive the latest updates!

Image Credit by Andrew Taylor