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Showdown as Popular Front demands right to form a government - but Macron declines
The group of elected parliament members of La France Insoumise (France Unbowed) party clench their fist inside the National Assembly, July 9, 2024 in Paris
FRANCE’S New Popular Front (NPF), which won the most seats in Sunday’s parliamentary election, has called on President Emmanuel Macron to ask it to form a government.
But the president yesterday addressed the nation saying as no bloc had a majority, he intended to keep current Prime Minister Gabriel Attal in place until a compromise coalition had been built up – and even hinting it should not include representatives of the biggest part of the NPF, the left-wing France Unbowed.
The NPF won 180 seats to 159 for Ensemble (“Together”), Mr Macron’s bloc, and outpolled it by over two million votes. The two must co-operate to form a governing majority.
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