French lawmakers on Thursday re-elected a member of President Emmanuel Macron's centrist bloc as speaker of the lower house, a first breakthrough in attempts to form a majority amid deadlock following snap elections.
French politics have been at a stalemate after an inconclusive election this month left the country without any clear path to forming a new government as Paris prepares to host the Olympic Games.
Lawmakers elected the speaker as parliament's lower house, the National Assembly, met for the first time since the snap elections.
With 220 votes in the third round, Yael Braun-Pivet, 53, in a surprise move beat left-wing candidate Andre Chassaigne, who received 207 votes, and Sebastien Chenu, who represents the far right and got 141 votes.
Macron quickly congratulated Braun-Pivet.
"Everyone who knows you knows that you will ensure respect for the plurality of opinion," he said on the social media platform X.
Chassaigne, the long-standing Communist MP, denounced the result, claiming that "the vote was stolen" by "an unnatural alliance" between the presidential camp and the right.
Seats in the 577-strong assembly are now divided between three similarly-sized blocs.
A broad leftwing alliance called the New Popular Front (NFP), which unexpectedly topped the July 7 run-off but fell well short of an absolute majority, has more than 190 seats in the National Assembly. Macron's camp has 164 lawmakers and the far-right National Rally (RN) 143.
Thursday's election for speaker was a way to test the waters for possible alliances of convenience -- although the secret ballot makes it impossible to say who exactly voted for which candidate in each of the three rounds.
The National Assembly speaker mostly organises and moderates debate but has some key constitutional powers.
The fractious alliance of Socialists, Communists, Greens and the hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) wants to run the government, but has yet to agree on a prospective candidate for prime minister.
Anyone holding the executive job second only to France's president must be able to survive a no confidence vote in parliament.
Some on the left have ruled out working with Macron's camp over his record of resented pension and immigration reforms and repeated use of a constitutional provision to pass laws without a majority.
While party leaders insist they should have first dibs on forming a government after topping the polls, it is unclear what majority would support an administration from the NFP.
This was illustrated as their candidate for the speakership, Chassaigne, failed to get elected.
Macron's likeliest prospective allies on the right, the conservative Republicans party, have ruled out a formal alliance with the president, but say they are open to agreeing to a legislative programme.
Even with their support, his centrists would need to fish for more votes on the moderate left to cobble together majorities if they continue to shun the anti-immigration, anti-EU RN.
In the days ahead, parliamentary parties will haggle over further posts in the assembly such as deputy speakers.
The NFP alliance has called to shut out the RN from all senior posts, prompting its parliamentary leader Marine Le Pen to accuse them of wanting to ignore its voters.
She has denounced a political "quagmire" after an anything-but-the-RN alliance among other parties produced the three-way split now bogging down parliament.
Le Pen will likely use any chaos or deadlock in parliament to feed her case for voters to hand her the presidency in 2027, when Macron cannot stand again after serving two terms.
The left's leaders continue to butt heads over the premiership.
Most at odds are LFI and the Socialists, the much-diminished party that brought presidents Francois Mitterrand and Francois Hollande to power.
Each has proposed a preferred candidate, with Socialist leader Olivier Faure saying lawmakers should simply vote on who should carry the NFP's colours.
