French lawmakers re-elect Macron’s ally Braun-Pivet as speaker in blow to left

France’s outgoing parliament president Yael Braun-Pivet won a second mandate on Thursday, in a vote that President Emmanuel Macron’s camp hopes will boost their chances to run the government and defeat the left.

Braun-Pivet scored 220 ballots while her main rival for the job, veteran communist lawmaker Andre Chassaigne, received 207 votes in a close race that required three rounds of voting.

The lower house of parliament was meeting for the first time since this month’s inconclusive election in which the leftwing New Popular Front (NFP) alliance unexpectedly came first, ahead of Macron’s centrists and Marine Le Pen’s far right, but no one group won a majority.

Electing the lower house of parliament’s president, equivalent to a speaker who organises the chamber’s agenda and runs debates, is usually a formality.

But running parliament has taken on more importance this time, with Macron weakened and a lot of uncertainty over who will form the next government and how effective it could be in a divided parliament.

The vote could – without certainty – offer clues as to whether a coalition government that commands a working majority can be formed and what its political colours could be.

“We have no choice: we have to get along, we have to cooperate, we have to seek compromise, we have to be able to talk to each other and move forward”, Braun-Pivet said in a speech after the outcome of the vote was announced.

Braun-Pivet, 53, was the candidate put forward by Macron’s Together group, who want to strike a deal with other mainstream parties to form a government that could include some of the NFP but exclude the hard-left France Unbowed.

Following Thursday’s parliament speaker appointment, attention will return to who will run the government.

Centrist Prime Minister Gabriel Attal has resigned but is, for now, staying on in a caretaker capacity.

The caretaker government could well stay on for the Olympic Games, which Paris is hosting from July 26 to Aug. 11, and possibly beyond.