Deeply divided France risks unprecedented deadlock after election shock

No party came close to a majority, and the lawmakers elected Sunday are now grouped into blocs with profound differences. The New Popular Front, an alliance of leftist parties that won the most seats in parliament, is a diverse coalition whose most powerful faction is a polarizing, far-left party, France Unbowed.

Leaders of the pro-business bloc allied with President Emmanuel Macron, which came in second, have said they can’t form a government with France Unbowed. Marine Le Pen and other leaders of the far-right National Rally party, which came in third, have signaled they won’t form a government with either Macron’s party or the left, who say the feeling is mutual.

Sunday’s result showed that opposition to the far right still commands a strong majority in French politics. But beyond that, political fragmentation is growing. Paris and other metropolitan centers are home to globally-connected, well-off French who voted en masse for Macron’s bloc.

The National Rally channels the growing antiestablishment anger of voters in the French hinterlands who are demanding France close its borders to immigrants. And on the left, France Unbowed draws much of its political support from students and the Muslim community in France, one of Europe’s largest.

Since the creation of the modern French state in 1958, parliamentary elections have produced large political blocs on the left or the right that were able to form governments quickly. Sunday’s election spread parliamentary votes across the spectrum, with some of the most powerful factions concentrated at the extremes.

The first step for the newly elected blocs will be to come to terms on a new prime minister, whom Macron must then agree to appoint. No consensus candidate is in sight.

Prime Minister Gabriel Attal offered his resignation on Monday, but Macron asked him to remain temporarily to ensure the country’s stability, according to a French official.

France Unbowed officials on Monday quickly made the case that the job should go to someone from their ranks, and that Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the party’s founder and one of the most divisive figures in French politics, should be a possibility.

“Jean-Luc Mélenchon taught the left how to win again," said Mathilde Panot, president of France Unbowed in parliament, adding that he is “absolutely not disqualified."

France’s immediate problem is its government finances, which are sure to be the most contentious subject in negotiations between the political parties. The country is coming under growing pressure to cut its deficit, forecast this year at 5.1% of gross domestic product, well-above the 3% threshold set in European Union rules. Yields on French government debt have jumped since Macron called snap elections last month.

The New Popular Front has proposed spending increases of around €350 billion over the next three years—nearly $380 billion—to boost public-sector wages and increase housing benefits, among other big-ticket items. They have also proposed to reinstate France’s wealth tax and roll back the pension overhaul. Macron expended much of his political capital to raise the country’s legal age of retirement, pushing the measure into law over the objections of parliament and a majority of the French public.

Those divergences appear to offer few areas for compromise between The New Popular Front and Macron’s party. In addition, France Unbowed has outraged much of France’s political establishment with its strident criticism of Israel, rhetoric that Macron’s government says has fueled a sharp rise in antisemitic acts in France since the Hamas attack of Oct. 7.

“There is not, and there will never be an alliance with France Unbowed," Attal said before the election.

But other factions in the New Popular Front said the group must be allowed to govern and that the idea of choosing another prime minister from Macron’s ranks was out of the question.

“There was a massive rejection of what Emmanuel Macron did," said Olivier Faure, head of the Socialist Party. “So we won’t put back those of Emmanuel Macron. That would be totally absurd."

Write to Matthew Dalton at Matthew.Dalton@wsj.com