Far right RN received roughly 34% of the vote according to surveys, while President Macron’s moderate alliance only managed to secure second place with 20.3%.
In the first round of the nation’s early parliamentary elections, the far right National Rally (RN) party of France has triumphed handily.
Marine Le Pen’s RN was revealed to be winning roughly 34% of the vote by pollsters IFOP, Ipsos, OpinionWay, and Elabe. Appearing to capture roughly 20.5 percent of the vote was President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist Ensemble alliance, while the left-wing New Popular Front (NFP) coalition was expected to secure roughly 29 percent.
Because of the outcome, RN is in a position to consider, ideally, forming a government. But forces from all over the political spectrum have indicated that they will work together to prevent the far-right party from winning in the second round of voting on July 7.
After the RN’s stunning victory in last month’s European Parliament elections, Macron shocked the nation by announcing a quick election, betting that the anti-immigration party with ties to anti-Semitism would not replicate that kind of success at the federal level.
La Marseillaise, the national song, was sung, and French flags were waved by supporters at party leader Le Pen’s Henin-Beaumont constituency in northern France.
She addressed the applauding throng, saying, “The French have shown their willingness to turn the page on a contemptuous and corrosive power.”
The protégé of Le Pen, RN President Jordan Bardella, who is running for prime minister, noted that the second round would be “the most important in the history of the French Fifth Republic.”
He declared that the far left was causing a “existential crisis” and posing “a real danger to France and all the French people,” adding that Macron’s party had collapsed.
In an estimate for BFM TV, pollster Elabe said that the RN and its allies may win between 260 and 310 parliamentary seats in the second round of voting on July 7. In a poll for France TV, Ipsos predicted that the RN and its allies could win between 230 and 280 seats.
In the National Assembly, the lower house of parliament for France, Le Pen and Bardella have stated that their party is aiming for an absolute majority, or 289 seats.
Macron advocates for a “wide democratic coalition.”
In the upcoming days, the RN’s adversaries’ political scheming will determine its chances of taking power and creating a government. Parties on the center-right and center-left have previously cooperated to prevent the far right from gaining power.
Macron demanded a “wide” coalition of democratic parties to oppose the extreme right.
The time has arrived for a wide, distinctly democratic and republican alliance for the second round, he declared in a statement, “especially in light of National Rally.”
He continued by saying that “the importance of this vote for all our compatriots and the desire to clarify the political situation” were demonstrated by the large turnout in the first round.
“No vote should go to the National Rally,” Prime Minister Gabriel Attal said, pointing out that the far right was nearing “the gates of power.”
In order to guarantee two-horse contests to defeat the greatest number of far-right RN candidates in the upcoming election, Jean-Luc Melenchon, the leader of the left-wing New Popular Front, announced that he would withdraw candidates who finished third in the first round of parliamentary elections.
“The importance of this vote for all our compatriots and the desire to clarify the political situation,” he continued, was demonstrated by the huge turnout in the first round of voting.
The far right was at “the gates of power,” according to Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, and “no vote should go to the National Rally.”
The head of the left-wing New Popular Front, Jean-Luc Melenchon, declared that he would drop candidates who finished third in the first round of parliamentary elections. This would guarantee two-horse contests in which the greatest number of far-right RN candidates would be defeated in the upcoming election.
Candidates that receive at least 12.5% of the vote from registered voters, along with the top two finishers, go to the next round of voting automatically. The constituency is won by the candidate with the most votes in the run-off.
We will never allow the National Rally to win, in keeping with our values and positions in every election that has come before, Melenchon declared.
A “blockade” was called for in a post on X by Laurent Berger, the head of the European Trade Union Confederation and the former secretary-general of the French Democratic Confederation of Labour.
In light of the National Rally’s impending rise to power, Berger stated, “This evening, our democracy and our republican values are at stake.”
“Blocking the extreme right is imperative in the face of danger.”
High attendance
When the polls closed on Sunday at 8 p.m. (18:00 GMT), Ipsos predicted that 65.5% of voters had cast ballots, the highest percentage since 1997.
After taking over from her father Jean-Marie Le Pen, Le Pen has worked to reposition the RN, which for years had been a political pariah in France. As a result, the party is now more powerful than it has ever been.
A professor at the University Toulouse-Capitole named Rim-Sarah Alouane claims that Le Pen “has done plastic surgery to her party.”
“We know what the extreme right stands for, but is it still the same corrupt, xenophobic, anti-Semitic, anti-Muslim, anti-minority party?” Alouane remarked to Al Jazeera.
The president was viewed as “haughty” and giving in to the wealthy, according to her, and the voting results also represented a rejection of Macron’s policies.
Because of Macron’s policies, particularly in the area of economics, Alouane added, “I personally know about cases of people who voted for the far right.”
Protests over the findings took place in the streets of Nantes, Lyon, Paris, and other large towns.
Sunday night, the leftist alliance held a gathering in Paris’s Place de la Republique, where a few thousand anti-RN protestors gathered.
The strong results from the RN filled 33-year-old instructor Najiya Khaldi with “disgust, sadness, and fear.”
“Demonstrating is not my usual behavior,” she remarked. “My belief is that I came to comfort myself and to feel less alone.”
Macron, who has promised to serve out his term until 2027, would have to live through a difficult time of “cohabitation”—which occurs whenever the president comes from a different political party than the majority of MPs—if the RN is able to obtain an absolute majority in the second round.
A different result would be drawn-out talks to establish a government that can last.
The RN now appeared “likely” to fall short of an outright majority, according to risk analysis firm Eurasia Group. Additionally, it stated that France would be left with “at least 12 months with a rancorous blocked National Assembly and – at best – a technocratic government of ‘national unity’ with limited capacity to govern.”