Emmanuel Macron and his majority expected a difficult second round of legislative elections, but probably not to suffer such a setback.

With only 234 seats of deputies obtained by the presidential coalition, according to Ipsos / Sopra Steria estimates, Sunday June 19, the absolute majority in the National Assembly has not been reached and the Head of State finds himself unable to govern solely on the basis of its coalition.

A first for a President of the Republic who has just been elected since the inversion of the electoral calendar in 2002, putting the legislative elections after the presidential one.

Behind, if the New Popular Ecological and Social Union (Nupes), born of the union of La France insoumise (LFI), Europe Écologie-Les Verts (EELV), the Socialist Party (PS) and the Communist Party (PCF ), obtains 141 elected members, thus becoming the second political force at the Palais Bourbon – provided that it remains united – it is indeed the result of the National Rally (RN), with 90 deputies, which impresses and surprises, while Les Republicans (LR) would get 75 seats.

“The situation is unprecedented, commented Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne. The National Assembly has never experienced such a configuration under the Fifth Republic. (…) As a central force in the Assembly, we must assume a particular responsibility We will work from tomorrow to build a majority of action."

As a central force in this new Assembly, we will work from tomorrow to build a majority of action.

There is no alternative to this gathering to guarantee our country stability and carry out the necessary reforms.

pic.twitter.com/m4klCGFVkB

— Elisabeth BORNE (@Elisabeth_Borne) June 19, 2022

But as it stands, the results of Sunday evening, once again marked by a very strong abstention (54%), give a representation at the Palais Bourbon not allowing Emmanuel Macron to have his bills adopted.

An agreement with LR could make it possible to achieve a majority, but the former party of Nicolas Sarkozy seems divided on the line to adopt.

"As far as we are concerned, we campaigned in the opposition, we are in the opposition, we will remain in the opposition", insisted its president, Christian Jacob, on Sunday evening.

But former LR Minister Jean-François Copé pleaded for a "government pact" with Emmanuel Macron.

This division should be exploited by Emmanuel Macron, who, no doubt, will try in the coming hours to convince as many elected LRs as possible to join him to form a majority.

But with 59 deputies missing for Together!, the march seems however very high.

On the authority of Christian Jacob over his troops depends the future of a government which should logically be reshuffled in the coming days.

Montchalin, Ferrand and Castaner on the mat

Because the other major fact concerns the list of symbolic defeats on the presidential majority side.

If Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne won in Calvados, with only 52.46% of the vote, however, at least three ministers were knocked out: the Minister for Ecological Transition Amélie de Montchalin, beaten in the Essonne, Health Minister Brigitte Bourguignon, beaten in Pas-de-Calais, and Secretary of State for the Sea Justine Benin, beaten in Guadeloupe.

>> To read: Legislative: sawtooth results for those close to Emmanuel Macron

Almost worse, pillars of macronie since 2017 bit the dust on Sunday evening: this is the case of the President of the National Assembly, Richard Ferrand, beaten in Finistère, and the president of the group La République en Marche at the Palais Bourbon , Christophe Castaner, beaten in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence.

"It's far from what we hoped for," admitted the Minister of Public Accounts Gabriel Attal, affirming that this "unprecedented situation" was going to "impose us to go beyond our certainties, our divisions".

"Use a lot of imagination" to govern

How Emmanuel Macron was able to go in five years from a "Jupiterian presidency", as he himself had theorized it, to possessing an absolute majority in the Assembly with his only party, La République en Marche , to a second five-year term blocked only two months after his re-election?

The reasons are many, but the absence of a campaign or almost the president, his Prime Minister and the majority as a whole are probably for many.

By delaying the appointment of the government to mid-May, three weeks after his re-election, Emmanuel Macron had taken the risk of leaving considerable space to Jean-Luc Mélenchon, self-proclaimed candidate for Matignon, and whose campaign dynamics do not stopped growing until election day.

>> To read: What to remember from the results of the second round of the legislative elections

The end of the campaign, electrified by the invectives and a dramatization of the ballot, marked by the scramble of the voting instructions during the RN-Nupes duels, returned back-to-back by some macronie pundits, completed the trouble.

As a result, the president who promised in 2017 to do everything to fight against the far right is the one who will have seen a record number of deputies from the National Rally enter the National Assembly five years later.

As the Minister of the Economy, Bruno Le Maire, perfectly summed up on France 2, estimating that the presidential party would have to "show a lot of imagination" to act in this "unprecedented situation", the new narrow majority of the macronie will have to compete in ingenuity and conviction to hope to have its texts voted on.

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