president macron of france has suffered
a major political setback after his
party failed to win a majority in the
country's parliamentary elections the
left alliance did better than expected
and macron now faces a tough challenge
to deliver his policies the centrist
ensemble coalition so they're expected
to win 245 seats well short of the 289
that are needed to control the national
assembly the left-wing alliance headed
by jean-luc melenchon is second on 131
marine le pen's far right national rally
has 89 seats with the mainstream
right-wing le republican headed by
christian jacob back on 64. let's hear
more from our paris correspondent lucy
williamson
his centrist coalition has lost a third
of its seats
just look at the mood
the situation
the situation is unprecedented the
national assembly has never seen a
configuration of this type in the fifth
republic
the situation constitutes a risk for our
country in view of the challenges that
we have to face
this is now president macron's main
opposition a new alliance of green and
left-wing parties dominated by far left
mps
the initial estimates confirming their
new status as the first opposition party
of france
it's the total defeat of the president's
party and there is no majority we have
achieved the political objective we gave
ourselves to bring down the men who with
such arrogance twisted the arm of the
world country to get elected
but this was the big surprise of the
night marine le pen's far-right national
rally party jumped from a handful of
seats to almost 90.
plenty of opposition to the president
from all sides
we're going to continue to bring french
people together as part of a great
popular movement unifying all patriots
from the right and the left
the parliamentary opposition to mr
macron's centrist coalition is now much
stronger than before but it's also more
fractured with one block led by jean-luc
melenchon on the far left of the chamber
and another by marine le pen on the far
right
french politics is realigning around
these three political groups
some voters say it's no bad thing if
president macron is forced to negotiate
with his opponents others believe
denying the government a majority only
leads to stagnation
president macron is facing a new era of
political opposition that some see as
good for democracy and others as bad for
france lucy williamson bbc news paris
thanks very much to lucy well let me
bring you some pictures that are coming
out of paris now uh here we have the
parliament there are people uh who have
been elected arriving uh apparently uh
following that election in france gave
that upset to president macron no doubt
he's going to have to make deals uh with
the various parties so we'll be able to
follow that and see exactly how well he
does or how successful he is in that
endeavor the bbc's hugh schofield is
also in paris and he told us why after
president macron's resounding
presidential election less than two
months ago these parliamentary results
look so different a lot a lot of people
who voted for macron did so not out of
any love for him but to keep out
marine le pen i mean
broadly the country now breaks down into
three blocks the center of macron the
left and front after on the melonshaw
and and the
right to far right of marine le pen and
they're pretty much on on a level
um but because there are three of them
it means that uh in in the in the
two-round election which is the second
round of the presidentials it meant that
everyone
on the left voted
to keep out marine le pen so
uh emmanuel macron was badly elected he
was elected in a kind of unhappy way
reluctantly a country not giving an
enthusiastic welcome but just saying all
right we agree uh and and saving up for
themselves a majority of the country
this feeling that well we can exact our
event the parliamentaries which are
coming and that's what's happening in
the past pres
tend to get a big boost in the
parliamentary election follow their
election because the country says well
okay we'll keep you do the job but not
this time that's because macron was
being re-elected and a lot of people
didn't like him a lot of people don't
like him and as i say
we're keen to have this opportunity to
deliver him this this this stinging
review well that that happened and i'm
just wondering i mean what does that
mean then for the next few years in
france i mean some of the discontent
that we've seen over cost of living or
mr macron wanted to bring in pension
reform for example somebody like marine
le pen was much more interested perhaps
in immigration um
i mean where do we think there will be
changes in in
french politics or policies or does it
all come to a slowdown
well i mean the risk is it does come to
a big slow down there that
that in france uh the the great
reform projects of of macron simply
peter out uh that he ends up
sort of cutting a kind of tacit
compromise with this big
opposition on the extremes and and so
there's nothing bold or daring but but
that was his sort of trademark that he
would be bold and daring is it possibly
this this next mandate will be one of
wasted opportunity and he'll just drift
through and focus on foreign affairs and
and not do very much which of course
would be seen by supporters as a great
waste and then the other question of
course is it's an ashley or in europe
now i mean he's been the great shining
new leader of um reinvigorated europe
and uh you know very much enjoyed this
role of striding the international stage
as the young leader of a
of a france which was back at the reigns
of europe
uh but now what i mean when everyone can
see that he's so gravely weakened at
home we'll even have the same panache
abroad