NOW THAT THE first round of voting has concluded in the French parliamentary elections, where the far-right National Rally won a historic victory yesterday, attention will turn quickly to the second round this Sunday.
The National Rally (RN) garnered 33% of the vote, compared to 28% for the left-wing New Popular Front (NFP) alliance, and 20% percent for Macron’s centrist grouping Ensemble, according to preliminary results.
The result led some 8,000 left-wing supporters to crowd the Place de la Republique in central Paris to denounce the prospect of the far right taking power.
“Democracy has spoken,” said RN leader Marine Le Pen following the announcement of projected results, while her opponents urged the French electorate to vote for anyone but the far right in the next round.
Candidates who earned at least 12.5% support of registers constituency voters will now progress to the second round. Any candidate with more than 50% of the vote after the first round is automatically elected, 76 of the 577 seats were decided this way yesterday.
The candidates with the highest percentage of votes after the second round will be elected to seats in the National Assembly. In France there is one seat per constituency.
In many cases, the run-offs in the second round will see two candidates competing for a seat, but it is the constituencies where more than two candidates have made the cut that will draw the most attention.
Three-way contests in the second round, known in France as “triangulars”, generally see the weakest candidate drop out and endorse one of their rivals. These endorsements could be key in deciding the ultimate makeup of the National Assembly when all is said and done.
Based on the results of the first round, without accounting for withdrawals, there are 306 triangulars and another five four-way contests to come on Sunday.
Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the leader of France Unbowed (LFI), the dominant party in the NFP left alliance, said yesterday that all energy should go towards ensuring the National Rally does not win in the second round.
He promised that NFP candidates would stand down in races where they end up in third place with an RN candidate in first, endorsing anyone but the far right in order to keep them out of power.
“Our instructions are simple, direct and clear. Not one more vote, not one more seat for the RN,” Melenchon added.
“We have seven days to spare France from catastrophe,” said Raphael Glucksmann, a key figure in the left-wing alliance.
President Emmanuel Macron was more vague following the announcement of projected results last night.
“Faced with National Rally, the time has come for a broad, clearly democratic and republican alliance for the second round,” he said in a statement while declining to address the public.
Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, a Macron appointee, did appear on television last night.
“The far right is at the gates of power,” Attal said, warning that the party risked winning an absolute majority.
“Our objective is clear: to prevent the RN from getting elected in the second round. Not a single vote must go to the National Rally.”
Despite those comments from Attal, some members of Macron’s centrist group have said they will not withdraw if it means supporting a member of Mélenshon’s party.
The left-leaning newspaper Liberation in an editorial called on Macron to remove all his alliance’s candidates from districts when they had arrived in third place to give the left-wing alliance a chance.
“The head of state has thrown France under the bus. The bus has continued its course unimpeded, and is now parked in front of the gates of Matignon”, the prime minister’s office, it said.
While projections have shown that RN may not win an absolute majority (289 seats), which RN president Jordan Bardella said was a requirement for him to take the role of prime minister, the possibility remains.
If the RN fails to win an outright majority, a hung parliament could be the result. That would lead to at least a year of parliamentary stalemate as French law prohibits holding new elections until a year after the last vote.
If the 28-year-old did take the premiership, he would be in office alongside sitting President Macron, in a situation known as “cohabitation”, where opposing parties hold the two major offices of state. Macron is secure in the presidency until the next election in 2027.
This would likely result in rows over constitutionally designated powers, particularly in the area of foreign policy.
Le Pen recently threw fuel on the fire in that arena by saying that the president’s commander-in-chief title was purely “honorific”.
“It’s the prime minister who holds the purse strings”, she said.
With reporting from AFP
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