The far right won the first round of crucial legislative elections in France on Sunday, in which the centre-right forces of President Emmanuel Macron came in third place behind the left, according to first estimates.
According to the criteria of
Marine Le Pen’s right-wing National Rally (RN) party and its allies won more than 34 percent of the vote, But they will have to wait until the second round on July 7 to find out if they will achieve an absolute majority in the National Assembly (lower house).
The left-wing coalition New Popular Front (NFP) would achieve between 28.5 percent and 29.1 percent of votes and Macron’s alliance between 20.5 percent and 21.5 percent, according to first estimates of the polling institutes Ifop and Ipsos at the closing of the polling stations.
The rise to power of the far right, for the first time since France was liberated from Nazi Germany in 1945, would add a new country to the European Union (EU) governed by this tendency, like Italy. And it could weaken Macron’s policy of supporting Ukraine.
Although Le Pen’s party, whose detractors consider her close to Vladimir Putin’s Russia, claims to support Kiev, it stresses that it wants to avoid an escalation with Moscow. In a vote perceived as historic, at 5:00 p.m., three hours before the closing of the polling stations, the turnout reached 59.39 percent of voters, 20 points more than at the same time in 2022, according to the Ministry of the Interior.
President Macron voting.
Photo:
The electoral system itself makes the final result of a National Assembly uncertain, where the three blocs that emerged from the 2022 elections will continue, but with a new relationship of forces.
Its 577 deputies are elected in single-member constituencies, using a two-round majority system. Depending on the results of each constituency, two, three or more candidates may qualify for the second round.
The first three projections for Sunday are between a simple majority or an absolute majority in the lower house. Socialists, communists and ecologists, allies of the radical party La France Insoumise (LFI) in the left-wing coalition, have said during the campaign that they will withdraw their candidates if they come third in the run-off, to give the official candidate more options against a far-right candidate.
Under pressure to adopt a similar policy towards leftist forces, Macron, whose popularity fell due to the early elections and who will reunite his government on Monday, hinted that his voting slogan will be not to vote for the “extremes” they represent, in your opinion, RN and LFI.
Second round, key for everyone
Macron, whose term ends in 2027, called early elections on June 9 following the resounding victory of RN in the European elections in France and now risks sharing power with a government of another political colour, less than a month before the Paris Olympic Games.
RN has already announced that if it achieves an absolute majority together with its allies in the legislative elections, it will nominate its young emerging leader Jordan Bardella as prime minister, who at 28 years old has already led his formation to victory in the European elections.
The far-right party defends a program that seeks to limit immigration, impose “authority” in schools and reduce household electricity bills, among other measures. RN’s rivals have tried in the final stretch to warn of the risk of the extreme right coming to power, which has made efforts in the last decade to moderate the image inherited from its founder Jean-Marie Le Pen, known for racist comments. and anti-Semites of him.
“Giving him any power means nothing less than running the risk of seeing everything that has been built and conquered over more than two and a half centuries gradually fall apart,” warned the daily Le Monde.
Macron calls for a “broad” alliance against the extreme right in
France
French President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday called for a “broad” alliance against the far right in France, where Marine Le Pen’s National Rally (RN) party is leading in the first round of legislative elections, according to initial estimates.
“As opposed to RN, the time has come for a broad alliance, clearly Democratic and Republican, for the second round,” Macron said in a written statement, highlighting that the “high participation” in the elections testifies to a “desire to clarify the political situation”.
AFP
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