France’s divided National Assembly votes to keep centrist speaker as political turmoil persists

Associated Press

PARIS (AP) — France’s divided National Assembly has kept a centrist member of President Emmanuel Macron’s party as speaker. Speaker Yaël Braun-Pivet has been the speaker of the National Assembly since 2022 and retained her post Thursday after three rounds of vote in the lower house of parliament. The 53-year-old Braun-Pivet received the support of Macron’s centrist allies and of some conservative lawmakers seeking to prevent her leftist contender a communist lawmaker from getting the job.