- Only a relative majority for President Emmanuel Macron
- Last hurdles on the way to candidate status
- Second IPCEI on hydrogen from September
- Habeck plans emergency measures for gas supply
- Hungary blocks EU agreement on minimum tax
- EU and India: free trade talks begin
- Why technology is power and Europe doesn’t have enough of it
After Marine Le Pen’s jab from the right during the presidential elections in April, Emmanuel Macron now takes a left hook from Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s left-wing alliance and as a result, the center alliance lost its absolute majority of seats in parliament in yesterday’s elections. This will likely make it more difficult for Macron to implement his reform plans. Tanja Kuchenbecker analyzed the election results and France’s possible future course.
At this week’s EU summit, Ukraine’s candidate status is in the balance. The EU Commission and countries like Germany and France have already signaled their approval, and even initially skeptical countries like the Netherlands and Denmark are putting aside their concerns. However, none of this will help if Hungary votes against it in the end, as Eric Bonse reports from Brussels.
Economic Affairs Minister Robert Habeck has announced emergency measures to continue securing gas supplies in Germany. Among other things, an additional credit line is supposed to be made available via the state bank KfW. Read more about this in the News.
China and the US are expanding their technological power on the global market, always competing against each other. In today’s Opinion, our guest author José-Ignacio Torreblanca explains why Europe must quickly learn to act strategically to avoid becoming the digital colony of other powers.
Wishing you a good start to the week.
Lisa-Martina Klein
Feature
Only a relative majority for President Emmanuel Macron
It was even closer than the polling institutes had predicted. According to initial projections, the president’s Ensemble alliance would have only 210 to 250 seats in the National Assembly, far short of the absolute majority of 289 seats. That would leave him with only a relative majority. French media saw the outcome as a “heavy defeat” for Macron. The 577 deputies for the National Assembly were elected in 577 constituencies. The legislative period lasts five years.
The left-wing alliance Nupes, led by left-wing politician Jean-Luc Mélenchon, is seen at 150 to 180 seats. Mélenchon, who is critical of the EU, wanted to challenge Macron for the majority in the National Assembly and had put himself forward as the new prime minister. Opinion research institutes had considered it unlikely that Mélenchon and his allies would succeed in gaining a majority, but at least he managed to steal an absolute majority from Macron, as he had hoped. This could put the latter in a tight spot when it comes to laws that he wants to push through. There was talk from the ranks of Nupes that they wanted to make life difficult for Macron. He must now reckon with a strong opposition.
The anti-capitalist Mélenchon succeeded in forming an alliance with Socialists, Greens and Communists, and the united left Nouvelle Union populaire écologique et sociale (Nupes, New Ecologic and Social People’s Union) is now the second strongest force in the country. In the presidential election, Macron had the anti-EU far-right Marine Le Pen as a rival, but now the attack came from the left. The election was also a success for Le Pen’s Rassemblement National (RN) party. According to projections, RN will win 80 to 100 seats, ten times more than before. Le Pen herself was also elected with over 61 percent. This makes her party the third strongest force in the country. The party celebrated the outcome as a victory. Marine Le Pen spoke of a “great emotion” on election night.
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