Emmanuel Macron loses his parliamentary majority

drafted the modern French constitution in 1958, he sought to end the parliamentary instability that had brought gridlock to the previous republic. By and large France has since turned into one of Europe’s most stable polities. Street theatrics are common. But general elections deliver clear results. Governments succeed each other promptly. Now, however, France looks to be heading for trouble after Emmanuel Macron’s centrist alliance, Ensemble, lost its . It was a disastrous election result for the president.On June 19th, at the run-offs in the two-round general election, Ensemble won just 245 seats, 44 short of a majority and 105 fewer than Mr Macron and his allies had won in 2017. That leaves him weakened, and his top-down governing style impeded. Mr Macron now needs to work out how to lead in a country that has no experience of post-election coalition-building. France may learn to act more like consensus-minded Germany; but some worry it will end up more like bickering Belgium.