Legislative 2022: French at time of choice

The first round opens at 8 am Sunday. Nearly 6,300 candidates seek the 577 seats of the National Assembly. Those who will not be elected on Sunday evening will have to access the second round of June 19, either arrive in the first two of their constituency, or obtain the voices of 12.5 % of registered voters.

Le Monde with AFP

After those of a good part of overseas on Saturday, French citizens of metropolis are expected, Sunday, June 12, from 8 am, in the polling stations for the first round of the legislative elections.

Nearly 6,300 candidates seek the 577 seats of the National Assembly, 20 % less than in 2017, due in particular to the Agreement on the left. Those who will not be elected on Sunday evening will have, to access the second round of June 19, either arrive in the first two of their constituency, or obtain the voices of 12.5 % of the registered voters.

The feared massive abstention could arbitrate the match by proxy between the head of state, Emmanuel Macron, and the third man of the presidential election, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, now leader of the left. Together !, Macronist coalition bringing together the Republic En Marche (LRM), Horizons and the MoDem, appears threatened by the Alliance of the left Nutps (new popular, ecological and social union) – which brings together rebellious France (LFI), the Socialist Party (PS), the Communist Party (PCF) and Europe Ecologie-les Verts (EELV). While at the far right, Marine Le Pen’s National Rally (RN) posted measured ambitions.

The legislative abstention has only increased since the 1993 election, going from 31 % that year to 51.3 % in 2017. It first affected young people and popular categories.

Fifteen members of the candidates government

If Emmanuel Macron only obtained a relative majority, he would be forced to deal with the other parliamentary groups to have his laws approved. The situation has already occurred in 1988, after the re -election of François Mitterrand. His Prime Minister, Michel Rocard, had then had to compose, laboriously, ephemeral majorities for each project. He had also often used in article 49-3 of the Constitution, a process allowing to adopt a law without vote, whose use has since been restricted.

If, in the connaire, the Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s Nuts won the absolute majority, Emmanuel Macron would be deprived of almost all his powers.

“It is no longer he who will determine the policy of the nation, but the majority in the National Assembly and the Prime Minister who will come from it,” sums up Dominique Rousseau, professor of constitutional law at the Pantheon University- Sorbonne. It is with this objective in mind that Jean-Luc Mélenchon did not cease repeating that he wanted to make these legislative elections “a third round” which would allow him to be “elected Prime Minister”.

By counting the Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne, fifteen members of the government are in the running in the legislative elections and will have to leave the executive in the event of a defeat, in accordance with an unwritten rule but already applied in 2017 by Emmanuel Macron.

The national rally targets a parliamentary group

After Marine Le Pen has garnered more than 41 % of the votes in the second round of the presidential election, the national rally fears to be distant by the Nuts and together! during the legislative elections. However, he hopes to obtain between 20 and 40 deputies, against eight elected officials in 2017, and, thus, constitute a parliamentary group for the first time since 1986.

The presidential candidate Eric Zemmour (reconquest!) Nourishes the hope of being elected deputy in the Var.

Finally, these legislative elections promise to be very high risk for the traditional right of the Republicans (LR), pillar for decades of French political life but far from power since 2012, and whose candidate, Valérie Pécresse, obtained less than 5 % of the presidential votes.

/Media reports.