Macron loses absolute majority in parliament
The president’s La République en Marche group has lost
26 members in parliament since he was elected.
By RYM
MOMTAZ 5/19/20, 11:33 AM CET Updated 5/31/20, 1:05 AM CET
PARIS —
French President Emmanuel Macron narrowly lost his absolute majority in the
lower house of parliament Tuesday, with the defection of seven MPs from his
party La République en Marche.
The new
group called "Ecology, Democracy, Solidarity" plans to advocate for
"social and environmental justice" and will be the ninth in France's
lower house of parliament. It will side "neither with the majority, nor
the opposition" in parliament but rather vote depending on the issues
according to the group's political statement.
A lower
number of LREM MPs ended up defecting than first rumored. The new group has 17
members in total, mostly disgruntled leftist LREM MPs, including Cédric Villani
who ran for Paris mayor against LREM's candidate Agnès Buzyn, as well as MP
Matthieu Orphelin who is close to the former Environment Minister Nicolas
Hulot.
"I am
a leftist. To remain so, I must leave LREM," MP Aurélien Taché told French
newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche. He had joined Macron's ranks early on in his
bid for the presidency and is said to have had a close relationship with the
president.
Since the Yellow
Jackets protest movement, there has been growing discontent among some members
of LREM's left wing who say the president's party, that was meant to break the
traditional left-right divide, ended up being more center-right than left.
The
government disputes that accusation.
"The
economic objective of the mandate was very clear from the start. Fiscal
discipline, unblocking the economy, making the labor market more flexible. We
implemented the 2017 program without ever straying from our center of gravity,"
government Spokesperson Sibeth Ndiaye told Le Parisien newspaper.
A group
needs 289 seats to have absolute majority in the lower house of parliament.
LREM now has 288 members — down from 314 at the beginning of Macron's mandate —
but the government retains a comfortable majority, thanks to the support of 46
MPs from allied group MoDem led by Pau Mayor Francois Bayrou.
Authors:
Rym
Momtaz rmomtaz@politico.eu
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