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After the vote, a new look in France
By Gregory Viscusi
Bloomberg News

France’s parliamentary elections in June didn’t just oust the two parties that have dominated French politics for a generation. They also upended the legislative body’s sartorial standards. 

The National Assembly’s administrative office said Thursday that male deputies don’t have to wear jackets and ties.

Some of the 17 deputies from far-left party France Unbowed, including party leader and two-time presidential candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon, showed up to the first day of Parliament on June 27 in open neck shirts and sweaters, leading to complaints from other deputies. The National Assembly’s administrative office said that there’s no written rule saying that men must wear a jacket and tie, simply that dress be “respectful of the institution.’’

President Emmanuel Macron’s political movement Republic on the Move won a majority in the National Assembly, which has been dominated since the early 1980s by either the Socialists or the Gaullists.

As a candidate, Macron sometimes went without a tie or even a shave. Since his election he’s only worn dark sober suits at official events, even when he tried his hand at several Olympic sports to promote Paris’s candidacy for the 2024 Games.

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