Shortly after the first election results that pointed to a victory for the nationalist right in the first round were released this Sunday (30) and now confirmed by the government itself, France saw protests in several parts of the country.
The main one took place in Paris’ Place de la République on Sunday night, where protesters set fire to trash cans, barricades and fired fireworks at Paris police, who responded to the demonstrations with tear gas canisters.
According to reports from the broadcaster France 24left-wing voters gathered at the site to show support for the New Popular Front, an alliance formed between French socialists, communists, greens and the France Insoumise party, which came in behind the National Rally (RN), led by right-winger Marine Le Pen.
Demonstrations were also recorded in the cities of Lyon, Place des Terreauxwhere participants set up barricades and clashed with police, Strasbourg and Rennes.
Marine Le Pen’s National Rally (RN) has secured an unprecedented and resounding victory in the first round of France’s legislative elections, after securing 33.15% of the vote alongside its conservative allies.
The left-wing coalition of the New Popular Front (NFP) obtained 27.99% of the votes and became the second major political force in the country, ahead of the majority now in the outgoing term of President Emmanuel Macron, who is the big loser of the elections, with 20.04% of the votes.
The second round of elections will be held next Sunday (7). RN and its associates will contest 485 of the 577 electoral districts, and their candidates finished first in the first round in 297 of them.
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