France votes this Sunday and the next to renew the National Assembly in legislative elections that are expected with strong abstention
A month and a half after re-electing the centrist Emmanuel Macron president, France goes to the polls this Sunday and next again to renew the National Assembly, the lower house of Parliament. Some 48 million citizens can vote in these legislative elections, elections that are held in two rounds, although it is expected that there will be a strong abstention.
Macron’s party and its allies, which are running for the legislative elections with the label Ensemble (Together), and Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s union of leftist parties (Nupes) are fighting to achieve an absolute majority in the National Assembly, set at 289 seats. National Regroupment, the party of the far-right Marine Le Pen would be, according to the polls, the fourth political force in the National Assembly, behind the Republicans, the moderate right.
The legislative ones are, in reality, 577 two-round elections. In total there are 6,293 candidates running in 577 constituencies, the same number of seats that are at stake in these elections. Each district represents about 125,000 inhabitants. Eleven deputies represent French residents abroad.
To be elected deputy in the first round, it is necessary to obtain a majority of the valid votes (50%) and that the vote obtained represents 25% of the electoral census of that constituency, which includes both those who vote and those who vote. abstain. If none exceeds that threshold, a second round is held between the candidates who obtained at least 12.5% of the votes.
Unlike the presidential elections, in which only the two most voted go to the second round, in the legislative elections there may be more than two finalists. The seat with the most votes wins the second round.
historical landmark
These legislative ones are marked by the irruption of Nupes. Mélenchon has achieved something that seemed impossible a few months ago: uniting all the leftist parties. The New Popular, Ecological and Social Union (Nupes) brings together candidates from La Francia Insumisa, the Socialist Party, the Communist Party and Europe Ecology-The Greens.
The leader of La Francia Insumisa (the Gallic Podemos) has presented the legislative as “a third round.” Mélenchon is looking for revenge, after finishing third in the first round of the presidential elections, behind Macron and Le Pen. The leftist leader has asked the French to vote in the legislative elections for leftist candidates.
Mélenchon wants to force cohabitation, forced coexistence between a president and prime minister of different political persuasion. This has happened three times in the Fifth Republic: twice during the presidency of the socialist François Mitterrand and once during the mandate of the conservative Jacques Chirac. He estimates that if the union of the left obtains a majority in the National Assembly, Macron would be forced to appoint him as prime minister.
The son of ETA member Josu Ternera, candidate
Egoitz Urrutikoetxea -son of ETA leader Josu Urrutikoetxea, alias Josu Ternera- is running in the French legislative elections for EH Bai, the brand of the nationalist left in the French Basque Country. Ternera’s son, born in Bayonne and of French nationality, is a candidate for a seat in the National Assembly for the fourth constituency of the Pyrenees-Atlantiques.
A total of nine candidates are running in this constituency to replace the charismatic deputy Jean Lassalle of the Resistons (Let’s Resist) party. A deputy since 2002 and a former presidential candidate, Lassalle does not appear in these elections, since he has to undergo a heart operation. In 2017, Lassalle was elected deputy in the second round with 52.7% of the vote.
His brother, Julien Lassalle, hopes to replace him in the seat, to continue defending the rural world in the National Assembly, although he has against him that he is less known than the veteran deputy. And to win the elections the last name is not enough, a good electoral program is also needed to convince the voters.
Lassalle and Urrutikoetxea will have to compete for the seat, with Annick Trounday, candidate of La República en Marcha (President Emmanuel Macron’s party) and Iñaki Echaniz, candidate of the union of leftist parties (Nupes), among others. Of the nine candidates, it remains to be seen how many manage to qualify for the second round of the legislative elections.
In the French Basque Country, 32 candidates from different parties participate in the first round of the legislative elections. EH Bai is presented in the three constituencies of the French Basque Country with the slogan “Gure esku – In our hands”. His electoral campaign has been focused on the ecological transition and housing problems. In addition to Urrutikoetxea, the nationalist left presents Mathilde Hary and Peio Dufau as candidates, respectively, in the fifth and sixth constituencies of the Pyrenees-Atlantiques.
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