Big blow for Macron who misses out on majority

EMMANUEL Macron’s presidential re-election “honeymoon” was shattered on Sunday (Jun 19) when he became the first French president not to win a presidential majority for around a quarter of a century.

This failure of Macron’s Ensemble (Together) coalition to win a majority, for which there had been warning signs for weeks, may also prove significant for Europe at large, not just France, especially if Macron now needs to spend a greater than expected part of the rest of his second term focusing on his domestic agenda rather than foreign policy -- limiting his ability to play the pro-EU “continental statesman” role he enjoys playing.

His economic reform agenda will now be more challenging to push through. This is a blow not just to the president, but also the French economy, and could undermine wider investor confidence in France which had been boosted in the last 12 months according to a recent report from EY.