Macron urges opposition parties to clarify their willingness to negotiate parliamentary agreements | International

The French president, Emmanuel Macron, has rejected this Wednesday the possibility of a government of national unity, one of the options that were being considered after the setback he received in the legislative elections on Sunday, in which he failed to renew the absolute majority of his first five-year At the same time, he has urged the opposition parties that have managed to form a parliamentary group in the new National Assembly to clarify “in the coming days” their position regarding the possibility of forming a majority coalition or supporting the Macronist deputies. in certain bills.

“In order to advance in a useful way, it is now up to the political groups to say, in all transparency, how far they are willing to go,” Macron assured in his first public statements since the elections. It was a brief speech to the nation, lasting eight minutes, after concluding a second day of meetings with the leaders of the parties in the National Assembly and on the eve of his trip to Brussels to participate in the last European Council under the French presidency shift.

Macron has claimed to have understood the message from the polls and has admitted that both he and other politicians must “learn to govern and legislate differently.” However, he has made it clear that the potential political paralysis of a country where no political force has a sufficient majority to advance bills and reforms is the responsibility of all parties.

In a serious international context, with the war in Ukraine, and an internal one that is also increasingly tense, especially given the loss of purchasing power of the population —the main concern of the French who voted on Sunday, according to the polls—; Macron has demanded “clarity and responsibility” from all political formations.

“Our country, more than ever, needs ambitious reforms to continue creating more wealth and innovate more (…) For this, it will be necessary to achieve commitments, make contributions, make amendments, but do it with all transparency on the part of all political forces”, has underlined. And this requires that all the parties with a parliamentary group (more than 15 deputies) in the hemicycle “clarify in the coming days the part of responsibility and cooperation that they are willing to offer”, whether it be “entering into a coalition of government and action ”, or simply “commit to vote on certain texts or the budget”.

Macron’s speech comes at the end of the second and last day of meetings with leaders of the political formations in the National Assembly, whose composition has caused an unprecedented situation in the Fifth Republic. On Tuesday, Macron received the far-right leader, Marine Le Pen; the president of the traditional right of the Republicans, Christian Jacob; the leader of the moderate Modem and ally of macronism, François Bayrou, and the first secretary of the Socialist Party, Olivier Faure.

This Wednesday, he continued contacts with the national secretary of the ecologists of Europe Ecology The Greens, Julien Bayou, with the deputy of France Insumisa Adrien Quatennens and with Édouard Philippe, leader of the new Horizons formation and first head of government in his first term . Except for the latter, which has called for the creation of a “grand coalition” to give a “stable direction” to the country, the rest of the formations have refused to provide a solid majority to macronism, which lacks forty deputies to pass its reforms in the lower house.

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