French parliament faces complex puzzle in post-election coalition talks

A fractious political climate and deep ideological divisions make finding common ground extremely challenging.

Transcript

00:00France's legislative elections have resulted in a hung parliament, with the National Assembly

00:06divided into three distinct blocs.

00:09Although the leftist coalition, the New Popular Front, came out on top with 182 seats, it

00:16does not have an absolute majority.

00:19Therefore, no clear figure has emerged as a possible prime minister.

00:25Voters are also divided on who should become prime minister, but some say coalition might

00:30be the way forward.

00:31There is a way to govern all together, because there are a lot of people from the old left,

00:40the socialist left, a more traditional left.

00:44But Sylvain Maillart, former president of the Renaissance group in the National Assembly,

00:49suggests it will take several weeks to form a majority.

00:52It will take time for us to have a programmatic basis.

00:56This is not the culture of France, to build coalitions and alliances.

01:00It will take a little more time, but when I look at our European partners, it takes

01:05several weeks.

01:06We are probably gone for several weeks of discussion.