(FILES) France’s President Emmanuel Macron looks on as he leaves after casting his vote in the second round of France’s legislative election at a polling station in Le Touquet, northern France on July 7, 2024. (Photo by Ludovic MARIN / AFP)
President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday put responsibility on parliament to negotiate a broad coalition reflecting France’s “republican institutions” to break the stalemate following an inconclusive snap election.
“Nobody won,” Macron said in a written message to voters published in French regional newspapers about the election.
“I am asking all political forces who recognise themselves in the republican institutions, the rule of law, parliamentary democracy, a European orientation and the defence of France’s independence, to start a sincere and fair dialogue to build a solid, and by definition pluralist, majority,” Macron said.
The formulation appeared designed to exclude Marine Le Pen’s far-right RN party, but also implicitly far-left firebrand Jean-Luc Melenchon’s France Unbowed (LFI), a big portion of the left-wing New Popular Front (NFP) alliance.
The election called by Macron with the aim of “clarifying” the political landscape in the end left France with a hung parliament
Centrists allied with Macron were looking Wednesday for an alliance with the right to counter ambitions by the NFP which emerged, surprisingly, with most seats in the National Assembly.
Prime Minister Gabriel Attal’s government will remain in power as Paris makes final preparations for the Olympics, starting in just over two weeks.
But Attal’s centrist group in parliament lost ground and the hunt is on for his successor.
French leftists believe that as the largest bloc in the new National Assembly with some 190 seats they are entitled to propose a new prime minister.
“The president refuses to recognise the results of the ballot box which put the New Popular Front ahead in terms of votes and of seats,” said Melenchon in a social media post in reaction to Macron’s message.
Macron, Melenchon insisted, had to “accept defeat” at the hands of the leftist alliance.
‘Beyond reproach’
The president’s Renaissance outfit, meanwhile, appeared divided as it sought allies in the lower chamber, with some seeking to include forces ranging from the centre left to the right in a broad coalition, and others only wishing to join forces with conservatives.
Until Wednesday’s letter, Macron had laid low following the election, and was away on Wednesday for a NATO summit in Washington.
Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin, who was also re-elected, told the CNews broadcaster he could support a “right-wing prime minister”.
Any contender would have to survive a confidence vote in parliament when it opens for business next week.
The broad leftist NFP alliance including Greens, Socialists, Communists and LFI has said they would suggest a candidate for prime minister by the end of the week.
Divisive LFI leader Melenchon has put forward 33-year-old Clemence Guette, who prepared his programme when he ran for president in 2022.
The more moderate Socialist leader Olivier Faure has also said that he would be willing to lead a cabinet himself.
Despite doing less well than expected, the anti-immigration RN and allies still gained ground in the National Assembly, from 89 seats in 2022 to more than 140 today.
Winning an absolute majority “has only been postponed”, Le Pen told reporters, calling the parliamentary manoeuvres an “unworthy circus”.
The party’s 28-year-old leader, Jordan Bardella, accused Macron of “organising the paralysis of the country by bringing the far left to the gates of power through shameful arrangements.”
“Now his message is: ‘Figure it out yourselves’,” he said.
On the left, Raphael Glucksmann, founder of progressive leftist movement Place Publique, said “parliamentary democracy” would be the only way forward for his camp.
“We’re going to have to talk to people we’ve fought against, without abandoning our convictions, and convince them,” he told the Nouvel Obs magazine.
The Israeli military announced on Wednesday it had struck two naval cruise missile production facilities operating under Iran’s ministry of defence in Tehran.
“In recent days, the Israeli air force acting on IDF intelligence struck two key naval cruise missile production sites in Tehran,” the military said.
It said the facilities were used to “develop and manufacture long-range naval cruise missiles, which are capable of rapidly destroying targets at sea and on land”.
The strikes “represent another step in deepening the damage done to the regime’s military production infrastructure”, the military added.
Last week, the military announced its fighter jets had struck several Iranian naval ships in the Caspian Sea, including vessels equipped with anti-submarine missiles.
The number of migrants who died on the “Eastern Route” from the Horn of Africa to the Arabian Peninsula doubled to a record high of 922 last year, the UN migration agency said Wednesday.
Tens of thousands of migrants from Ethiopia, Somalia and neighbouring countries take the route across the Red Sea each year, mostly from Djibouti to Yemen, in search of work as labourers or domestic workers in wealthy Gulf countries.
“2025 was the deadliest year ever recorded on the Eastern migration route… with 922 people dead or missing — double the number from the previous year,” Tanja Pacifico, head of mission for the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) in Djibouti, told AFP.
The majority of victims were from Ethiopia, the second most-populous country in Africa with more than 130 million people. It is plagued by multiple internal conflicts and deep poverty.
“IOM remains fully committed to working alongside the government of Djibouti to promote safe and dignified migration pathways, in order to prevent further tragedies,” said Pacifico.
Many migrants who cross the Red Sea find themselves stuck in Yemen, the poorest country on the Arabian Peninsula, which has been embroiled in a civil war for nearly a decade, and some even choose to return.
Rapid economic growth in Ethiopia — estimated to reach around 10 percent in 2026 — could encourage less migration, IOM says, but that is mitigated by high inflation, also around 10 percent in February.
Election workers recount ballots in the Marselisborg Hallen in Aarhus, Denmark on March 25, 2026. (Photo by Mikkel Berg Pedersen / Ritzau Scanpix / AFP) /
Denmark’s political parties began the thorny process of forming a government Wednesday, with the centrist Moderates as kingmaker after the prime minister’s Social Democrats scraped through a general election without a majority.
Greenland’s Inuit Ataqatigiit party member Naaja Nathanielsen (C) looks on in a polling station in Nuuk, on March 24, 2026, during the parliamentary election in Denmark (Photo by Oscar Scott Carl / Ritzau Scanpix / AFP) / Denmark OUT
Danes were braced for a weeks-long process as Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen seeks to consolidate power in the deeply splintered parliament after Tuesday’s snap vote.
Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen arrives at Amalienborg Palace in Copenhagen to inform the king about the election result one day after the parliamentary election on March 25, 2026. (Photo by Martin Sylvest / Ritzau Scanpix / AFP)
A left-wing bloc made up of five parties, including Frederiksen’s Social Democrats, won 84 seats; the right-wing and far-right claimed 77; and the Moderates won 14 in the election.
The Social Democrats posted their worst election score since 1903—though they remained Denmark’s largest single party, with 38 seats in the 179-seat parliament.
Chairwoman of the Social Democrats Mette Frederiksen attends a party leader debate hosted by Publicists’ Club one the day after the parliamentary election at the Confederation of Danish Industry’s building in Copenhagen on March 25, 2026. (Photo by Liselotte Sabroe / Ritzau Scanpix / AFP)
Frederiksen formally tendered her coalition government’s resignation to King Frederik on Wednesday, telling a televised party leader debate she wanted to try to form a centre-left government.
“The most realistic scenario” would be a coalition with the five parties on the left and the centre-right Moderates, she said.
But it is not certain the Moderates, led by Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen, would agree to that.
“I don’t believe that Denmark needs policies aligned with” the leftist Red-Green Alliance, Lokke said.
Chairman of the Moderates Lars Loekke Rasmussen attends a party leader debate at the Confederation of Danish Industry’s building in Copenhagen on March 25, 2026, the day after the parliamentary election. (Photo by Liselotte Sabroe / Ritzau Scanpix / AFP) / Denmark OUT
King Frederik was to meet party leaders individually later Wednesday to determine who should be asked to try to form the next government.
“My expectation is that Mette Frederiksen will become prime minister,” University of Copenhagen political science professor Rune Stubager told reporters.
“But I don’t know with the backing of which parties, like the left wing or the right wing,” he said.
He noted that Lokke, a two-time former prime minister, would likely vie for the position of prime minister, even though he has adamantly denied any interest in the job.
“Danes want me and not another prime minister. I still have the backing to be able to continue on behalf of the Danish people,” Frederiksen insisted during the debate.
Frederiksen has for the past four years headed an unprecedented left-right coalition made up of her Social Democrats, the Moderates and the Liberals.
The Liberals have refused to continue in a Social Democrat-led government.
‘Too Hard To Say’
Danes are now prepared for long negotiations. After the 2022 election, the talks lasted six weeks.
“It’s a long process, which means the government won’t be formed and it will be quite difficult to pass laws during this period,” lamented Jesper Dyrfjeld Christensen, a 54-year-old engineer.
“It’s really too hard to say who will be part of the coalition,” admitted Stubager.
With 12 parties in parliament, the political landscape is jagged — though Denmark is accustomed to minority governments.
“To some extent, this is the way Danish politics works. You have a minority government in the centre which forms a majority with the left on some issues and with the right on others,” he explained.
The negotiations are expected to focus on economic and pension issues, pollution and immigration, he said.
The traditional far-right party, the Danish People’s Party, which has heavily influenced policy since the late 1990s but slumped in the 2022 election, more than tripled its result to 9.1 per cent of votes.
The three anti-immigration groups together garnered 17 per cent, a stable figure for Denmark’s populist right over the past two decades.
“If negotiations take place in the left-wing bloc with the moderates, then there will be more focus on green issues than on immigration,” Stubager said.
“But if, instead, the Moderates negotiate with the parties on the right, then the central issue will be immigration.”
Four seats in Denmark’s parliament are held by its two autonomous territories — two for Greenland and two for the Faroe Islands.
While the Faroese renewed the mandates of the two outgoing lawmakers, with one for each bloc, Greenland overwhelmingly backed the left-wing party and Naleraq, which advocates rapid independence from Denmark.
