On the evening of the second round of the legislative elections on July 7, the New Popular Front came in first with more than 190 deputies, ahead of the Presidential Movement led by Ensemble pour la République, then the far-right party RN and fourth LR. This result gave good hope that a MP from the New Popular Front could become president of the National Assembly.
On July 18, the election of the President of the National Assembly took place. The New Popular Front had a single candidate in the first round: the communist André Chassaigne, president of the GDR group.
In the first round, André Chassaigne came first with 200 votes. He was ahead of the RN candidate. Yaël Braun-Pivet, outgoing president, came in third position with 120 votes. She was the candidate for Ensemble pour la République, the Presidential Movement party. Another party in this Movement, Horizons, had a candidate who withdrew after the first round.
The Republican Right group (LR) MP also decided to withdraw their candidate, Philippe Juvin, who came in 4th position in the first round, in favor of Yaël Braun-Pivet.
In the second round, the addition of the votes of the MP of the Presidential Movement and LR put Yaël Braun-Pivet in the lead with 8 votes ahead of André Chassaigne. Charles de Courson, candidate of the MP of the LIOT group, then decided to withdraw. He had just obtained 12 votes.
The third round is the last: the candidate who comes first is elected by a relative majority.
Yaël Braun-Pivet obtained 220 votes, 13 more than André Chassaigne. She was therefore re-elected as president of the French National Assembly.

The coalition of the 2nd and 4th is enough for a relative majority

The party’s candidate came in 2nd position in the legislative elections and 3rd in the first round of the election for the presidency of the National Assembly was therefore elected thanks to the support of the party that came in 4th. The addition of the votes of the MP of these parties - who lost the legislative elections - was sufficient to have their candidate elected to the presidency of the National Assembly, against the candidate of the parties which came first in the popular vote.
The election of the presidency of the MP is the first vote following the legislative elections. It therefore made it possible to observe the balance of forces in the National Assembly. If the New Popular Front constitutes the first group of MP, the coalition of the Presidential Movement and the Republican Right LR is numerically the first force, while the Lepénistes remain third.

The New Popular Front the opposition?

This result provides an indication of the choice of a new Prime Minister by the President of the Republic. A Presidential Movement-LR coalition has a larger relative majority than the New Popular Front group. The election for the presidency of the National Assembly shows that this coalition is capable of agreeing on a name. It is this type of coalition which is favored by MP of the Presidential Movement to lead the government. Yesterday’s vote reminded us that on the essentials, Mouvance Présidentielle and LR agree.
Thus, the New Popular Front, winner of the legislative elections, runs the risk of being the opposition and therefore of being unable to implement its program.

M.M.