What’s Left for France’s Left?

When a left-wing coalition came first this month in France’s parliamentary elections and upended a predicted victory for the far right, supporters filled the streets. Some cried, some danced. “The left has awakened,” a supporter said. “We’ve shown that something else is possible.”

Less than two weeks later, that seemed less certain.

Almost immediately after their victory, the parties in the coalition started fighting among themselves. Then on Thursday, their candidate lost the election for the president of the National Assembly, a vote that had gained outsize importance in a fragmented political landscape in which no party or bloc holds an outright majority.

Now, many are wondering what happens next.

“It’s going to be hard,” said Zahia Hamdane of France Unbowed, the far-left party of the firebrand leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon, on Friday. “I took it very badly yesterday.”

The alliance of four left-wing parties — Communists, Socialists, Greens and France Unbowed — was hastily pulled together after President Emmanuel Macron dissolved the National Assembly and called for snap elections last month.

It called itself the New Popular Front, and at first its determination to prevent the surging far right from coming to power helped the parties set aside their differences.