The rancour in French politics showed no sign of abating on Friday following the re-election of Yaël Braun-Pivet as speaker of the National Assembly.
Braun-Pivet, who held the post during the previous parliament, won 220 votes on Thursday night during a third round of voting to beat off the challenge of the veteran left-wing candidate André Chassaigne and Sébastien Chenu from the National Rally party.
Chassaigne, 74, denounced the result as a deal between President Emmanuel Macron's party and the Republican party.
“The Republicans, through an alliance with Madame Yaël Braun-Pivet, voted for this president in exchange for positions of responsibility in the National Assembly that will be far above how much weight they actually carry,” Chassaigne said in an interview on the French radio station franceinfo on Friday.
"It's a Pyrrhic victory,” said Chenu. "It is against nature ... between Macron's supporters and the Republican party who got themselves elected a fortnight ago by saying they were the opposition to Emmanuel Macron and they have just voted for Yaël Braun-Pivet. It circumvents the will of the voters."
During a short acceptance speech on Thursday night, 53-year-old Braun-Pivet said she recognised she was under pressure to offer cohesion after parliamentary elections had failed to produce a party with a majority in the 577-seat lower house.
"What we can say to each other is that we have an immense responsibility," she told MPs. "There are major issues at stake and our decisions, our actions can change our lives.
"We have to listen to these messages from the voters and come up with solutions, using new methods. This assembly is more representative of the French people, but also more divided. It is necessary to find compromises."
Macron took to social media on Thursday night to offer his congratulations.
"All those who know you know that you will ensure respect for the plurality of opinions and the expression of the diversity of sensibilities," he said.
Braun-Pivet, who had been serving as the minister for overseas territories, became the first woman to hold the post of speaker when she was selected for the role of organising and moderating parliamentary debates in June 2022.
The horse trading will continue on Friday to pick Braun-Pivet's six deputy speakers along with 12 secretaries and three financial administrators.
Each parliamentary group is entitled to propose candidates for the various roles, as well as for the chairs of eight standing parliamentary committees ranging from finance and foreign affairs to defence and culture.
Goal
Leaders on the left have called for the far right to be denied any positions of power within parliament, while some centrists say they will seek to block candidates from either the National Rally or the left-wing France Unbowed.
Such stances flout convention, by which the leadership of the National Assembly is typically drawn from a mix of parliamentary groups.
The first vice-presidency and at least one financial administrator job traditionally go to members of the opposition, while rules expressly require that the opposition chairs the finance committee. Seats on the committees, meanwhile, are divided proportionally between groups.
With more than 140 seats, the National Rally heads the third-biggest group in the assembly and has already said it wants the top job on the finance committee.
