France is wading into uncharted waters after President Emmanuel Macron lost his absolute majority, with a large but shaky opposition bloc on the left and scores more far-right lawmakers surging into the National Assembly. Uncertainties abound, with each next step on the political agenda a potential flashpoint. FRANCE 24 takes a look at what's next.
Throughout Macron's first term as president, opposition parties chided his docile absolute majority in the National Assembly, likening his lawmakers to Playmobil figurines – an army of plastic arms flexed in permanent "Aye!" position, ready to push through the president's policy agenda virtually unchallenged. On Sunday night, when all the votes were counted, far more of the president's toy soldiers had been lost in battle than expected. And Macron, just two months into his second five-year term, finds himself with the narrowest relative majority in modern French political history and no choice but to govern through coalition-building.
