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President Emmanuel Macron’s party and the Nupes leftist alliance have prevailed in the French foreign vote and will face each other in nine of the eleven constituencies, according to the final results of the first round of the legislative elections published this Monday.
‘Ensemble!’, the coalition led by the party with the presidential majority, won eight of the eleven constituencies abroad, against two of the New Popular Ecological and Social Union (Nupes), according to the final results of the first round of the legislative elections published this Monday, June 6.
The notable exception is the first-round elimination of former prime minister Manuel Valls, who announced his defeat on Sunday night in France’s fifth overseas constituency, which includes Spain, Portugal, Monaco and Andorra. “If dissent and division have caused confusion, I cannot ignore my score and the fact that my candidacy has not convinced,” the former head of government said on Twitter. “It is up to me to draw the consequences,” he added, before asking for a crackdown in the second round against the Nupes candidate, Renaud Le Berre, who was ahead of the outgoing deputy and dissident majority candidate, Stéphane Vojetta.
The left-wing coalition Nupes also came first in the ninth constituency, which covers the Maghreb and West Africa, with the diplomat Karim Ben Sheikh in the lead. The progressive alliance also managed to come in second almost everywhere, except in the eighth Mediterranean constituency, which includes Italy and Israel, where incumbent MP Meyer Habib came in first.
In the first constituency (North America), the macronist incumbent Roland Lescure was in first place, but was followed by the Nupes candidate, Florence Roger.
In the sixth constituency (Switzerland), outgoing MP Joachim Son-Forget, elected in 2017 by La République en marche before flirting with the extreme right, was eliminated, in favor of Marc Ferracci, an economist close to Emmanuel Macron.
The Polynesians, who voted on Saturday, also placed the candidates designated by the presidential majority between the first (Nicole Bouteau, 41.9%) and second (Tepuaraurii Teriitahi, 33.2%) constituencies. In the third, however, it was the outgoing Moetai Brotherson, who sat with the communists in the Assembly, who came in first place (34.2%), two points ahead of the Macronist candidate.
High abstention is expected
The second round for French citizens abroad, who voted a week before voters residing in the national territory, will be held on June 18 and 19.
This year, voters seem to have mobilized more than in 2017 (19.1%), while a record abstention is expected at the national level for a first round of legislative elections (52 or 53% according to polls), which will take place on June 12 in metropolitan France.
The abstention of young people and the working classes could benefit the current majority, which is supported by an electorate that is older and more affluent than that of the National Association or that of Nupes, according to specialists. But “the concern is there” among the macronists, the pollster Frederic Dabi (Ifop) explained on Sunday night on the French chain LCI because “there are assumptions that would give relative majorities” to the side of Emmanuel Macron, below the absolute majority of 289 seats.
The unprecedented union of the left led by the side of Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who has established himself as the main actor of the French left during the presidential elections, intends to impose cohabitation on Emmanuel Macron.
On the far right, Marine Le Pen said on Sunday in Pas-de-Calais that “there is still time to prevent Macron from having all the powers” and to “defeat the curse of an unfair voting system, which keeps a wormy”.
*With AFP and Reuters; adapted from its French version
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