Macron ally, French PM expected to resign on Monday (7) after left-wing victory

French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal announced on Sunday (7) that he will resign from his post after the defeat of Juntos, President Emmanuel Macron’s coalition, in the second round of elections for the National Assembly. The Elysée Palace announced that Macron will not comment on the result of the vote this Sunday.

Attal is a member of Macron’s Renaissance party and took office in January this year as the youngest prime minister since the founding of France’s Fifth Republic in 1958. He was also the president’s first openly gay prime minister.

“I will present my resignation to the President of the Republic tomorrow morning,” said Macron’s ally.
“I will never accept that millions of our citizens choose to vote for the extremes. To the French people I say: I respect each and every one of you. Some lives are harder than others and it is these lives that we must improve. Wherever I am, I will always be ready to achieve this goal,” said Attal.

Exit polls published shortly after polling stations closed at 8pm local time (3pm in Brasília) revealed a surprise victory for the New Popular Front, a network of left-wing parties and organizations that have come together to block the advance of the far right.

According to the survey, the French National Assembly will have the following configuration:
New Popular Front: between 172 and 192 deputies
Together: between 150 and 170 deputies
National Meeting: between 132 and 152 deputies
Republicans: between 63 and 68 deputies

“Tonight, the political party I represented in this campaign (…) does not have a majority. Therefore, faithful to republican tradition and in accordance with my principles, I will present my resignation to the President of the Republic tomorrow morning,” he declared on the steps of the Matignon Hotel, the official residence of the French Prime Minister.

Attal also stated that “no absolute majority can be led by extremes”, indicating that President Macron’s coalition will continue with the dangerous false equivalence between the New Popular Front and the National Rally, failing to materialize the republican front in the National Assembly.

After the announcement of the first results this Sunday, the leader of France Insoumise, the main party of the NFP, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, ordered Gabriel Attal to “go away” and declared that the NFP must “govern”.
“The defeat of the President of the Republic and his coalition is clearly confirmed. The President must bow down and admit this defeat without trying to get around it in any way,” stressed Jean-Luc Mélenchon.