French voters are looking on aghast at the state of their country’s democracy. Faced with stalemate in the French National Assembly since the 7 July elections, acute frustration is building among left and right wing députés. They fear that the election is being stolen from them by the scheming of president Emmanuel Macron’s much depleted centrist bloc. Despite taking a beating in the European and legislative elections from left and nationalist right, Macron has been manoeuvring to deny any chance of government to members of what he refers to as the ‘extremes’: Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s France Unbowed party and Marine Le Pen’s National Rally. He has been brutally successful in the latter case.

How will this dismal saga end?

The 577-seat chamber is gridlocked by three relatively equal political groupings after the broad leftwing alliance of the New Popular Front (NPF) unexpectedly topped the 7 July runoff with more than 190 seats. But it is well short of a 289 absolute majority. Macron’s camp is on 164 and Le Pen’s grouping on 143. Declaring that there is no winner, Macron refuses to call on the NPF to form a government despite it being the largest group in the chamber, although the NPF does itself no........

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