France and Europe are facing an uncertain autumn. Already, earlier this summer, the parliamentary election in France delivered a surprising blow to President Emmanuel Macron. After Macron handily won a second term, many observers expected a huge show of support for Macron’s candidates. Parliamentary elections are usually a few weeks after the presidential one and, in France’s highly “presidential” system, follow (or amplify) the result of the latter.
There were a lot of good reasons to think that this would be the case. The presidential campaign had been quite a “classic” one, despite the rise of the conservative journalist Eric Zemmour and of the far-left politician Jean-Luc Mélenchon. In spite of those challengers, the second round brought, just as five years earlier, a battle between Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen. Macron won just as easily as expected. It would have been logical to observe a “classical” parliamentary election, as well.
Instead the result was unexpected.
