France struggles to revive lost art of political compromise

On the brink of civil war and with governments surviving less than two months, France in 1958 turned to General Charles de Gaulle to rewrite the constitution and keep an unruly parliament in check.

More than six decades later, the rise of populist forces has reopened an old chapter in French history that De Gaulle’s Fifth Republic was meant to have closed: parliamentary chaos.

Snap elections last Sunday have yielded the most fragmented National Assembly in the country’s postwar history, with no party or bloc gaining sufficient seats to govern alone and the far right emerging as the third-largest faction.

Efforts by President Emmanuel Macron’s centrists and a rival left-wing bloc to revive a long buried tradition of parliamentary compromise have resulted in immediate bickering.

“It is the crash-test of the system à la française, which is no longer fit to deal with today’s political forces,” said Tristan Mendès France, grandson of Pierre Mendès France, who headed a seven month-long government from 1954-55.

At stake is the ability to find a durable government for the Eurozone’s second-largest economy. As Russia continues to wage its war in Ukraine, a France beset by paralysis or government instability could have far-reaching consequences for the EU and Nato.

Macron, who cannot call parliamentary elections again until June next year, has said he would give the newly elected assembly some time before using his constitutional prerogative to appoint a new prime minister. On Wednesday, he urged parties to “engage in sincere and loyal dialogue to build a solid majority” of parties excluding the far right and the far left.

Deep divisions have resurfaced within the leftwing Nouveau Front Populaire, which came first with 193 seats in the 577-strong parliament and was quick to claim the right to nominate a premier.

But after week-long talks, the NFP — an eclectic mix spanning centre-left Socialists, greens, Communists and the far-left La France Insoumise (France Unbowed) of anti-capitalist firebrand Jean-Luc Mélenchon — has yet to agree on a name for PM.

Even if they reach consensus and if Macron appoints their candidate, others including the conservative Les Républicains and Marine Le Pen’s far-right Rassemblement National have already signalled they would call a vote of no confidence against any government that includes LFI ministers.

Macron’s own Renaissance party may suffer defections: some of its more leftwing members said they wanted to form their own parliamentary group.

Other centrist allies are pushing for a deal with the conservatives, who have so far been reluctant to team up after fiercely criticising the president during the campaign.

Unlike Germany or the Nordics, which have long practised the delicate art of coalition building, France has lost its ability to compromise, said Marie-Anne Cohendet, a professor in constitutional law. “In France it’s more confrontational, pitting one bloc against another,” she said.

French traits rooted in history are also quick to resurface, said Bertrand Mathieu, also a constitutional law professor. “France is both a monarchist and revolutionary country. Between the revolution and the monarchy there isn’t a lot of space.”

Instead, French party politics are usually about winning the presidency, with Macron’s second and final term ending in 2027.

“In France, the presidential elections are at the heart of everything,” said Enrico Letta, former Italian prime minister.

“Today they must strike a deal that has nothing to do with the presidential election since the issue is how to run the country. You need politicians willing to make compromise. But some of them, including Mélenchon, are already campaigning for 2027. This overlap is unique to France.”

France’s 1958 constitution brought an end to political instability by strengthening the executive power and favouring the emergence of a parliamentary majority serving a directly elected president. It grants the government many tools to bypass an uncooperative lower house.

Macron, whose party first lost its majority in 2022, used the constitutional provision known as 49.3 to enact legislation without a vote in parliament. This was the case in March last year for his overhaul of the pension system, which faced fierce opposition from MPs and widespread street protests.

France’s shift from “a parliamentary Republic to a presidential Republic” is unique in Europe, said historian Nicolas Roussellier. De Gaulle and all those who went through the trauma of the Vichy regime that collaborated with the Nazi occupation were “obsessed by the ability to govern”, he said.

France’s presidential regime also empowers technocrats, Roussellier said. “The idea is that laws are being written by more intelligent civil servants in ministries,” he said. The result, he noted, is both a more disengaged and a more rebellious parliament.

Yet France did experience a golden age of parliamentarianism. Some of the country’s most important laws, said Roussellier, were crafted by MPs in the late 19th and early 20th century.

An example is the 1905 law on the separation of church and state, which was drafted by Aristide Briand — a socialist lawmaker who went on to serve as prime minister 11 times — with little intervention from the government.

Faced with fierce opposition from Catholic monarchists on his right and anti-clericals on his left, he managed to secure a majority on a bill that still shapes France’s secular rules to this day.

Pierre Mendès France, a revered French statesman, also managed to secure parliamentary support to end the country’s first colonial war in Indochina (Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos) in 1954, during his short stint as head of the government.

The parliamentary system faltered however in the late 1950s after Algeria started its war of independence, fracturing French society to the point of widespread civil unrest and prompting De Gaulle to demand full emergency powers after being asked to run the government in 1958.

Now, after decades of relative stability, the demise of mainstream parties and the rise of political extremes are testing the general’s constitution.

“The political landscape has changed, moving from a traditional bi-polarisation with a one-party majority to fragmentation and a form of radicalisation of the political discourse,” said Anne Levade, a constitutional law professor.

The French reflex, when faced with a political crisis, is to change constitution, she said, noting there have been more than 14 such alterations.

“We’ve tried everything, including the monarchy, a parliamentary system, a presidential system . . . But changing constitution is not going to change the political reality.”

Tristan Mendès France is also pessimistic about the resilience of French institutions in the face of populism.

“The tragicomedy of this situation is that those who will be bold enough to join a coalition will be called ‘traitors’. The extremes will automatically benefit from this, with no political cost,” he said.

“The notion of compromise is akin to betrayal here.”

Additional reporting by Adrienne Klasa