Deeply divided France risks unprecedented deadlock after election shock

livemint.com:

PARIS : France’s elections have produced a fractious parliament that threatens an unprecedented period of political paralysis, revealing a country that is deeply split along lines of class, geography and religion. No party came close to a majority, and the lawmakers elected Sunday are now grouped into blocs with profound differences. The New Popular Front, an alliance of leftist parties that won the most seats in parliament, is a diverse coalition whose most powerful faction is a polarizing, far-left party, France Unbowed.

Leaders of the pro-business bloc allied with President Emmanuel Macron, which came in second, have said they can’t form a government with France Unbowed. Marine Le Pen and other leaders of the far-right National Rally party, which came in third, have signaled they won’t form a government with either Macron’s party or the left, who say the feeling is mutual. Sunday’s result showed that opposition to the far right still commands a strong majority in French politics.

But beyond that, political fragmentation is growing. Paris and other metropolitan centers are home to globally-connected, well-off French who voted en masse for Macron’s bloc. The National Rally channels the growing antiestablishment anger of voters in the French hinterlands who are demanding France close its borders to immigrants.

And on the left, France Unbowed draws much of its political support from students and the Muslim community in France, one of Europe’s largest. Since the creation of the modern French state in 1958, parliamentary elections have produced large political blocs on the left or the right that were able to form governments quickly. Sunday’s election spread parliamentary votes across the spectrum, with some of the most