New Popular Front in the context of "2024 French legislative election"

France entered a period of political instability and crisis, unprecedented in the Fifth Republic, after the 2024 French legislative election called by President Emmanuel Macron in June 2024. The election resulted in a hung parliament split into three opposed blocs, each unable to command a majority: the left-wing New Popular Front alliance (180 out of 577 seats), Macron's centrist Ensemble alliance (159 seats) and the far-right National Rally (142 seats).

This three-way split and a French political culture averse to coalition government and compromise resulted in Macron appointing four minority governments, headed by Michel Barnier, François Bayrou, and Sébastien Lecornu respectively. Barnier and Bayrou's governments both collapsed over budgetary disputes, and Lecornu resigned after less than a day, before being reappointed.

In French politics, a triangular election (French: élection triangulaire) is a characteristic of the French electoral system, due to the two-round voting system for elections to the National Assembly. A triangular election occurs when three candidates from the first round have reached the retention threshold and do not withdraw in the second round. The winner of this election is determined by a relative majority. Depending on the elimination thresholds adopted for the first round, the second round may also give rise to a quadrangular election (4), or even a quinquangular (5) or sexangular election (6).

Triangular elections were particularly notable in the 2024 French legislative election between the Ensemble pour la République, New Popular Front, and the Union of the Far-Right.