President Emmanuel Macron on 8 July regained the constitutional authority to dissolve France’s National Assembly, ending the 12-month period during which Article 12 bars a second dissolution after early elections. The move comes exactly a year after Macron’s surprise 2024 snap vote stripped his centrist alliance of its majority and produced France’s most fragmented legislature in decades. Macron has said his “wish” is to avoid another dissolution but refuses to rule it out, depicting the threat as a deterrent should lawmakers, in his words, “block the country.” Political advisers say the option gives the Élysée leverage over both opposition parties and his own restive ranks while Prime Minister François Bayrou, whose minority government is struggling to identify €40 billion in savings for the 2026 budget, braces for possible censure votes this autumn. Opposition figures are split. Jean-Philippe Tanguy of the far-right Rassemblement National publicly demands fresh elections and a shift to full proportional representation, while centrist and left-wing deputies warn that a new ballot could further strengthen extremist forces. Pollsters report that most voters oppose returning to the polls so soon after the 2024 campaign. Constitutional scholars describe dissolution as Macron’s last major institutional weapon before he must leave office in 2027. Analysts caution that deploying it again—after last year’s gamble backfired—could deepen political instability and fuel calls for the president’s resignation if the outcome again fails to deliver a workable majority.