President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday put responsibility on parliament to negotiate a broad coalition reflecting France’s “republican institutions” to break the stalemate following an inconclusive snap election.
“Nobody won,” Macron said in a written message to voters published in French regional newspapers about the election.
“I am asking all political forces who recognise themselves in the republican institutions, the rule of law, parliamentary democracy, a European orientation and the defence of France’s independence, to start a sincere and fair dialogue to build a solid, and by definition pluralist, majority,” Macron said.
The formulation appeared designed to exclude Marine Le Pen’s far-right RN party, but also implicitly far-left firebrand Jean-Luc Melenchon’s France Unbowed (LFI), a big portion of the left-wing New Popular Front (NFP) alliance.
The election called by Macron with the aim of “clarifying” the political landscape in the end left France with a hung parliament.
