UPDATE - Yael Braun-Pivet reelected as Speaker of France’s National Assembly

REVISES HEADLINE, DECK, LEDE, ADDS NEW INFORMATION

By Nur Asena Erturk

ANKARA (AA) – French lawmakers elected Yael Braun-Pivet, a centrist candidate from President Emmanuel Macron’s party, as Speaker of the National Assembly, or lower house of parliament, for a second term Thursday.

The move came as members of parliament gathered for the first time after snap parliamentary elections.

Three rounds of voting were held, and Braun-Pivet secured a relative majority of 220 votes.

She beat left-wing candidate Andre Chassaigne (207 votes) and center-right candidate Sebastien Chenu (141 votes).

A member of the central bloc backed by Macron, she was largely criticized by left-wing politicians.

Mathilde Panot from the La France Insoumise (France Unbowed, LFI) party told reporters that Braun-Pivet's reelection was a "terrible signal for our country's democracy."

Another LFI member, Louis Boyard, in a post on X described Braun-Pivet's reelection as a "denial of democracy."

Veteran communist lawmaker Andre Chassaigne blamed the Macron-backed center alliance for uniting with the Republicans to counter the left wing.

The political climate in France remains tense and divided as parties, particularly the left-wing alliance, dispute the prime ministry.

Hundreds of people took to the streets of Paris earlier Thursday to urge Macron to nominate a prime minister from the left-wing alliance.

Protesters aim to pressure Macron to get him to nominate a left-wing prime minister as soon as possible.

Macron on Tuesday accepted Prime Minister Gabriel Attal’s resignation following snap election results, after initially rejecting it on July 8.

Attal will continue dealing with the government’s affairs until a new government is formed.

Political parties harshly criticized Macron for rejecting Attal's resignation, delaying the process and causing instability in the country.

The left-wing alliance New Popular Front (NFP), which is expected to get the most seats in the National Assembly, started searching for a candidate to propose as prime minister immediately after the second round on July 7.

The intense work led to a divergence of opinion and even divisions inside the NFP, which is looking for a solid name to give Macron.

The New Popular Front could win more than 180 seats. The centrist alliance, Together for the Republic, backed by Macron, finished second with more than 160 seats, while Marine Le Pen's National Rally (RN) party got over 140 seats.

The National Assembly has 577 seats, and none of the three primary alliances was able to win an absolute majority of 289 lawmakers.

The first round was held on June 30, and 76 candidates were elected without a second round.

The RN received 29.26% of the vote alone (37 seats), a figure that rose to more than 33% when combined with its allies.

The NFP got 28.06% (32 seats), followed by the centrist Together for the Republic with slightly over 20.04% (two seats).

Macron dissolved parliament and announced early elections after the RN won more than 31% of the vote in the European Parliament elections on June 9, defeating his centrist bloc.