Disillusionment Is Dangerous

Yaël Braun-Pivet has been reelected president of the National Assembly, narrowly edging out the NFP candidate André Chassaigne with the help of votes from the newly rebaptized Droite Républicaine, ex-LR. The DR will be richly rewarded for its support: in negotiations between Gabriel Attal and Laurent Wauquiez, the latter was promised a vice-presidency, a questure, and the chairmanship of the finance committee. The latter must go to a party of the “opposition,” and indeed DR has officially inscribed itself in the “opposition,” although for this vote it aligned itself with EPR (Ensemble pour une Renaissance, as the Macronistes are now calling themselves), which hopes to be in the majority.

Such wheeling and dealing, promptly denounced by both the NFP and the RN, is reminiscent of the Fourth Republic. It tends to discredit democracy by producing results that no majority has voted for. It does not augur well for the future of this hung parliament. It is therefore dangerous.

Of course, this cynical coalition, while having just barely enough votes to elect a president of the AN, could do so only because the RN abstained. The Macronistes still do not have a sufficient majority to sustain a prime minister designate. To do that, they will have to win over some left-wing votes–and this very agreement makes that eventuality more unlikely.

The mood has turned very sour on the left, which has had its own problems coming to agreement on a person to nominate as prime minister designate. If the sourness continues, the situation could become explosive. La politique politicienne is often not pretty. Sometimes it is downright ugly. In the present circumstances, it is rash to the point of foolhardiness.