The building of the Bourbon Palace in Paris, where the lower house of the French parliament sits. File photoPARIS, Jun 21 The leader of the right-wing Republican Party, Christian Jacob, said in a meeting with Emmanuel Macron that his party would not agree to form a coalition in parliament with the French president. Macron meets with leaders on Tuesday political parties after the elections to the National Assembly. Republican leader Christian Jacob, one of the first to meet with the French president, announced his refusal to form a coalition with the presidential alliance.Le Pen will leave the post of head of the National Rally party»I repeated to the president that there was no question of us going for something that could be regarded as a betrayal of our voters. We campaigned as an opposition and we will remain resolute in this opposition way,» Jacob said on BFMTV following a meeting with Macron. On Sunday, the second round of elections to the National Assembly of the country (lower house of parliament) took place in France. As a result of the second round, Macron's Renaissance party, even as part of a coalition with three other parties, was unable to maintain an absolute majority in the lower house. Instead of the minimum required 289 mandates, the bloc received only 245 out of 577. The second place was taken by the left-wing coalition «New People's Ecological and Social Union» (Nupes) led by Jean-Luc Mélenchon's Unsubdued France party with 131 seats. In third place is Le Pen's far-right National Rally party, with 89 seats. The right-wing Republican party was in fourth place, gaining 61 seats in parliament. The loss of an absolute majority means that now Macron will not be able to freely carry out his legislative initiatives through the lower house and through parliament in principle, since in the upper house — the Senate — macronists also do not have a majority. The current Prime Minister of France, Elisabeth Born, immediately announced after the elections that the party «Together!» will immediately begin the path of forming an «active majority». At the same time, other major blocs and parties that have entered the National Assembly have already stated that they intend to remain in opposition. parliament a threat to the country
