Irish Examiner view: Macron must act quickly now he's lost his centrist majority

With both the left and the right emboldened by the results, the French premier's ability to pull together the threads of a coalition could be in shreds

French President Emmanuel Macron, right, walks next to French Socialist party First Secretary Olivier Faure after their meeting at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France, Tuesday. Picture: Mohammed Badra/Pool photo via AP

The French political system today stands in a what was described so aptly by Captain Boyle in Sean O’Casey’s classic Juno and the Paycock as a “state o’ chassis”.

Boyle’s description might have referred to the world in general, but when applied to the French political system, in which president Emmanuel Macron’s Ensemble alliance failed to win a majority in last weekend’s Assemblé Nationale elections, it has a particular resonance.