When Emmanuel Macron announced the dissolution of the Assemblée Nationale on June 9, he was expecting a "clarification." It happened in one respect, and one respect only: The French people showed that they didn't want the far-right Rassemblement National (RN) in power. The "republican front", though hastily put together and burdened with contradictory instructions (calls to block the RN versus those to vote "neither" for the RN, "nor" for the radical left La France Insoumise), worked to the fullest, and is the only big winner of the second round of the snap parliamentary elections.

As for the rest, the outcome of the polls has thrown France into a fog of uncertainty. The Assemblée Nationale is divided and ungovernable, unless an agreement can be reached between the left-wing Nouveau Front Populaire (NFP) alliance and Ensemble (President Emmanuel Macron's coalition of parties), which have spent years battling it out, with the right-wing Les Républicains party – the governing coalition's previous support force – and the RN having already said they would refuse to strike an agreement with Macron's camp.

As for the two blocs, the NFP and Ensemble, they have internal divisions, whether in terms of ideological or strategic orientation. Faced with the challenge of finding an absolute majority to implement its platform, the hardest part is just beginning for the left-wing bloc, dominated by increasingly contested La France Insoumise (LFI) leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who has said he refuses to negotiate. Meanwhile, the centrist bloc – which was saved by the republican front – may have avoided a predicted rout, but it has emerged from the race weakened, with around a hundred fewer MPs. This bloc is also divided, between its right and left wings, against a backdrop of powerful rivalry between Macron's potential heirs, who broke away from the president on Sunday evening.

In calling for a "new era," Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, who has an acrimonious relationship with Macron, has set a date for what's to come. He took the opportunity to differentiate himself from his rival, Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin, who said he would not stay in government for one more day after July 7. The prime minister, for his part, presented himself as a man of "duty," ready to stay as long as necessary, in light of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Meanwhile, former prime minister Edouard Philippe curtly lamented the fact that the decision to dissolve the Assemblée had led to a "great indeterminacy," which is "putting the country at risk in a way that no one should underestimate."

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