French Parliament to Test New Power Balance for First Time

French lawmakers prepared to elect the president of the National Assembly on Thursday, in a vote seen as a test of the power balances between the country’s political forces and as a potential indicator of the direction any new government would take.

The gathering of the Assembly, the lower house of Parliament, was its first since no party gained an outright majority in the second round of a snap election on July 7. It was unclear which political force the new president of the Assembly would emerge from.

The president of the National Assembly does not have executive powers, but this election could mark the emergence of a majority, even if not an absolute one, that could weigh on President Emmanuel Macron’s choice of the next prime minister.

In Paris on Wednesday at the National Assembly, its neoclassical portico decorated with colorful Olympic statues as the city prepares to host the games, lawmakers engaged in frantic negotiations and projections.

The left-wing coalition that won the most seats in the election, a jumble of parties spanning from the center left to the far left, has spent most of its time since the election bickering. But it managed, at last, to select a candidate: André Chassaigne, a member of the Communist Party who has been a lawmaker for 22 years.

Other candidates include Yaël Braun-Pivet, the former president of the assembly from Mr. Macron’s party, and Sébastien Chenu, a senior figure in Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally.