LE PEN THE BIGGEST WINNER IN THE FRENCH ASSEMBLY ELECTIONS

 

The real winner in the French National Assembly Elections that finished this weekend was undoubtedly Marine Le Pen and her Rassemblement National (National Rally) Party. Often smeared as "fascist" and "far right" the RN has increased its representation in the legislative chamber by more than tenfold -- from 8 seats in 2017 to a projected 89 today.

The mainstream media have largely focused on the challenge to President Macron's centrist Ensemble Party from NUPES (The New Ecologic and Social People's Union), a temporary electoral coalition on the Left fronted by Jean-Luc Mélenchon. But the fact is that Le Pen's Rassemblement National will emerge as the largest opposition party in the Assembly, as the NUPES coalition is extremely unlikely to work as a unified bloc in the Assembly. In fact, far from it!

Macron's Ensemble, which lost its previous majority, will remain the largest party, with an estimated 224 seats, but the 149 NUPES seats will be split among Mélenchon's hard left La France Insoumise (LFI), the Socialist Party (PS), the French Communist Party (PCF),and various Green and other minor parties.

NUPES was successful in taking away Macron's majority, but it signally failed in its other goal of containing the rise of National Rally. French politics just got a whole lot more interesting.