The election of a member of French President Emmanuel Macron’s coalition as Assembly speaker was a “coup,” left-wing lawmakers said on Thursday.
Yael Braun-Pivet from President Macron’s Renaissance party-led coalition was re-elected speaker of the National Assembly, a post she has held since 2022.
After three rounds of voting Ms Braun-Pivet won 220 votes whilst Communist Party deputy Andre Chassaigne, the candidate of the largest group in parliament, the New Popular Front, secured 207 votes.
Ms Braun-Pivet received the support of some right-wing lawmakers seeking to prevent the communist winning the role.
The parliamentary election in July failed to give any of the three major political blocs — the New Popular Front (NPF), Mr Macron’s vehicle Together and the far-right National Rally party — an outright majority.
Ms Braun-Pivet told lawmakers after her election: “We need to be able to seek compromises.
“You will always find me by your side to do this, to dialogue with you, to innovate with you, to find that new path that the National Assembly must take.”
But Mr Chassaigne blamed “unnatural alliances” for having “usurped the popular verdict expressed at the polls.”
Leader of the left-wing France Unbowed party Jean-Luc Melenchon said: “The vote in the Assembly is the new coup of a clique ready to do anything to keep all the powers. A red line is crossed with the illegal vote of ministers. The entire democratic system is called into question.”
He said: “The President must get his act together and appoint a Prime Minister from the NPF, because it is the voters’ decision.”
Unions and left-wing activists staged protests across France on Thursday to put pressure on President Macron to choose a prime minister from the NPF.
There is no firm timeline for when the president must name a new prime minister and Mr Macron has so far refused to be drawn on when he is intending to appoint to the role.
