Bardella is leading the RN’s campaign in the lightning-speed legislative campaign triggered by President Emmanuel Macron shock decision to call snap elections. In France, the president traditionally appoints the leader of the main party or coalition in parliament as prime minister if his own camp loses the legislative elections.
Such cases, which are referred to in France as cohabitations, have occurred three times under the current system of government, but the situation may be more complicated on July 7, after the second round of the vote. While the National Rally is projected to obtain the most seats in the National Assembly, at this point it is not expected to obtain the 289 seats needed for an absolute majority.
With a minority government, the RN would have to seek coalitions with other political forces, a task which could prove complicated due to the staunch opposition to the far right expressed by nearly all other political forces.
“Who can believe that we will be able to change the daily lives of the French by cohabiting with a plurality? Nobody can,” Bardella said. “I say to the people of France: to try us out, we need an absolute majority.”
Since 2022, Macron and his prime ministers have governed without an absolute majority, finding ad hoc majorities on a case-by-case basis or using constitutional mechanisms to bypass votes in parliament. While Macron’s governments survived the dozens of votes of no confidence against them, a minority RN government would be significantly more at risk of losing and being forced into resigning, potentially scuttling their 2027 ambitions for the presidency.
Meanwhile, the French left is determined to avoid the question of who among them would govern as prime minister if they were to win the legislatives, in part due to fears that hard-left France Unbowed leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon might force his way through. Mélenchon has said that he would “not seek to impose” himself.
On Tuesday, Socialist party leader Olivier Faure called for a vote to be held among the newly elected left-wing coalition members to name a prime minister after July 7 if the left manages to win the elections.
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