In an interview with the news agency Agence France-Presse on Saturday, Mr. Macron said he had asked Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne to talk with parliamentary groups about forming “a new government of action” that will be named early next month.
He also said that the new government could have people from all sides of politics, except for the hard-left France Unbowed party and Ms. Le Pen’s party, which he said were not “parties of government.”
The National Rally doesn’t have enough lawmakers to get its own bills through Parliament, and it will be hard for them to find allies there. But because of its election results, the party will get more money from the government. This is good news for the party’s finances.
Importantly, it has enough seats to form a parliamentary group for the first time since the 1980s. This is the only way to get power in the lower house.
National Rally lawmakers can now bring a no-confidence vote, ask for a law to be reviewed by the Constitutional Council, create special investigative committees, fill top parliamentary jobs, and use a new wealth of speaking time and amending power to push and prod the government and slow or stop the legislative process.
“There was a two-day debate on immigration during the last term,” Mr. Olivier said. “We each had five minutes to talk!”
Ms. Le Pen has said that her party will ask for positions that are usually given to opposition groups. These include the vice presidency of the National Assembly and the head of the powerful finance committee, which is in charge of the state budget.
Analysts say that the far right’s established presence in Parliament could make them even stronger in France’s political scene and give them a great place to start for future elections.
Jean-Yves Camus, co-director of the Observatory of Radical Politics at the Jean-Jaurès Foundation, a center for progressive research, said, “I think Marine Le Pen knows that this is really the last test.”
Mr. Camus said that many voters, even those who might agree with her ideas, still have doubts about her party’s ability. Now, he said, she will try to show that, like other far-right populist parties in Europe, her party can use institutional machinery from the inside instead of railing against it from the outside.
Mr. Olivier said that his party would try to get laws passed on its favorite topics, such as lowering value-added taxes on energy and essential goods, cutting immigration by a lot, and giving police more power. But he said that his party would not be a “troublemaker” and would instead be “a constructive opposition.”
