Next French President won’t enjoy carte blanche

None of the three frontrunners in this spring’s French presidential election looks likely to be able to depend on majority support in Parliament should they be elected. This will weaken their capacity to implement their proposals and could paralyse reform, or indeed Frexit, efforts. French parliamentary elections will be held on 11th and 18th June, only a few weeks after the second and final round of the presidential election on 7th May. The proximity of the presidential and legislative elections means that the President is usually of the same political alignment as the party that has a majority in the lower house of parliament, the National Assembly. The upper house, the Senate, typically leans right and half of its members are up for election in September. But as it is primarily tasked with amending legislation, it is less instrumental in influencing the direction of policy.