PARIS (AP) 鈥� France鈥檚 divided National Assembly on Thursday kept a centrist member of President Emmanuel Macron鈥檚 party as speaker after produced a hung legislature.
Speaker Ya毛l Braun-Pivet, 53, has been at the head of the National Assembly since 2022 and she retained her post Thursday after three rounds of votes in the lower house of parliament.
She received the support of Macron鈥檚 centrist allies and of some conservative lawmakers seeking to prevent her leftist contender from getting the job. Braun-Pivet won 220 votes, while communist lawmaker Andr茅 Chassaigne got 207.
The parliamentary election earlier this month resulted in a split between three major political blocs: the New Popular Front leftist coalition, Macron鈥檚 centrist allies and the far-right National Rally party. None of them won an outright majority.
鈥淲e need to get along with each other, to cooperate. We need to be able to seek compromises,鈥� Braun-Pivet told lawmakers in a speech following her election as speaker. 鈥淵ou will always find me by your side to do this, to dialogue with you, to innovate with you, to find that new path that the National Assembly must take.鈥�
Thursday鈥檚 opening session of the lower house of parliament came two days after Macron of Prime Minister Gabriel Attal and other ministers, but asked them to handle affairs in a caretaker capacity until a new government is appointed, as France prepares to host at the end of the month.
Leaders of the New Popular Front on Thursday evening again to form the new government, insisting they won the most seats in the National Assembly.
Yet the members of the coalition, which includes the hard-left France Unbowed, the Socialists, the Greens and the Communists, are still feuding among themselves over whom to choose as their prime ministerial candidate.
Chassaigne, who was the joint candidate of the New Popular Front, criticized the job of speaker going to Macron's centrists as a vote 鈥渟tolen by an unnatural alliance."
It 鈥済ives us even more strength,鈥� he added.
Chassaigne blamed conservative members of The Republicans party for participating in 鈥渢actics that led to not changing anything," describing the move as 鈥済iving nausea.鈥�
Speaking from Woodstock, England, where he was attending , Macron declined to comment on the French political situation and refused to say when he intends to name a new prime minister.
鈥淚 will not answer that question,鈥� he said.
Politicians from the three main blocs and smaller parties had waged a battle for the job of speaker, with each camp seeking to make a show of force in the hope that it would influence Macron's decision.
Unions and left-wing activists staged protests Thursday across the country to 鈥減ut pressure鈥� on Macron to choose a prime minister who comes from the New Popular Front.
There is no firm timeline for when the president must name a new prime minister.
Sylvie Corbet, The Associated Press
