Unions call for strikes to pressure Macron over leftist coalition government

French President Emmanuel Macron (Aurelien Morissard/AP)

With just 15 days before the start of the Olympic Games in Paris, a leader of a major French union has called for mass strikes to pressure President Emmanuel Macron into “respecting the results” of recent legislative elections and allow a leftist coalition to form a new government.

France has been at the brink of a governing paralysis since Sunday’s vote for the National Assembly, the influential lower house of parliament, resulted in a legislature split between three political groupings: the New Popular Front leftist coalition, Mr Macron’s centrist allies and the far-right National Rally of Marine Le Pen.