How political “cohabitation” works in France

UNDER THE modern French republic, founded by Charles de Gaulle in 1958, elections to the country’s presidency and parliament take place at different votes. Since the constitution was updated in 2000 to shorten the presidential term from seven years to five, the parliamentary election has been held a couple of months after the presidential poll. From 2002 to 2022, at five successive legislative elections, this delivered a government of the same political stripe as the president. France’s upcoming parliamentary election on June 30th and July 7th, however, may well lead to another spell of what is known as “cohabitation”. This could be under Marine Le Pen’s hard-right National Rally (RN), or the newly formed hard-left New Popular Front. What is cohabitation, and how does it work?