French lawmakers have re-elected a member of President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist bloc as president of parliament’s lower house, a possible breakthrough in attempts to form a majority amid deadlock.
French politics have been in gridlock after a snap election this month left the country without any clear path to forming a new government as Paris prepares to host the Olympic Games.
Lawmakers elected the president as parliament’s lower house, the national assembly, met for the first time since the elections.
With 220 votes in the third round, Yaël Braun-Pivet, 53, in a surprise move beat leftwing candidate André Chassaigne, who received 207 votes.
Seats in the 577-strong assembly are now divided between three similarly sized blocs.
A broad leftwing alliance called the New Popular Front (NFP), which unexpectedly topped the 7 July runoff but fell well short of an absolute majority, has more than 190 seats in the National Assembly. Macron’s camp has 164 lawmakers and the far-right National Rally 143.
Thursday’s election for speaker was a way to test the waters for possible alliances of convenience – although the secret ballot makes it impossible to say who exactly voted for which candidate in each of the three rounds.
The national assembly president mostly organises and moderates debate but has some key constitutional powers.
The fractious alliance of Socialists, Communists, Greens and the hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) wants to run the government, but has yet to agree on a prospective candidate for prime minister.
Anyone holding the executive job, second only to France’s president, must be able to survive a no confidence vote in parliament.
