The RN came well ahead in the first round of voting, followed by the New Popular Front and the presidential camp. Several personalities were elected in the first round.
The National Rally confirms the predictions. The far-right party led by Jordan Bardella came out on top in the first round of early legislative elections with 33.2% of the vote, followed by the left-wing parties of the New Popular Front (28.1%) and those of the presidential majority grouped under the banner Ensemble (21%), according to our Ipsos-Talan estimate. for France Télévisions, Radio France, France 24, RFI and LCPSunday June 30.
Left-wing leaders, like Emmanuel Macron and Gabriel Attal, have called not to vote for the National Rally during the second round on Sunday July 7, but the voting instructions differ depending on the camps and the candidates.
Here is what you need to know about the first round of the legislative elections.
The highest participation rate in twenty-seven years
The French went to the polls in droves. Participation reached 65.8% in France, according to our Ipsos-Talan estimate. Only 34.2% of registered voters abstained from voting to nominate their deputy.
We have to go back to 1997 to find such a high participation rate, at 67.9% of those registered. During the last legislative elections, in 2022, the abstention rate reached a much higher level, at 52.49% of those registered.
This level, unprecedented for decades, was coupled with an absolute record, that of the number of proxies carried out: more than 2.1 million as of June 26, according to the spokesperson for the Ministry of the Interior on X.
The RN comes first with 33.2% of the votes
Jordan Bardella confirms the party’s rise seen in the European elections. RN candidates won 33.2% of the vote nationally, according to our Ipsos-Talan estimate. The far-right party is thus able to send a majority to the Palais-Bourbon at the end of the second round on Sunday, July 7, far ahead of its 89 deputies in the previous legislature. It remains to be seen whether it will be relative or absolute.
Marine Le Pen welcomed the results which, according to her, show a “Macronist bloc practically erased” and an “first step towards a choice of alternation”. “The French have rendered a final verdict”said Jordan Bardella. “I intend to be a Prime Minister of cohabitation, respectful of the Constitution and the function of the President of the Republic, but uncompromising on the policy that we will implement in the service of France”also assured the president of the RN.
The left-wing alliance scores better than in 2022, with 28.1% of the vote
The strategy of unity has proven to be profitable for the left. The candidates nominated by the member parties of the New Popular Front (including La France Insoumise, the Socialist Party, Les Ecologistes-EELV and the Communist Party) obtained 28.1% of the votes in the first round, according to our Ipsos-Talan estimate.
The NFP thus scored better than Nupes, the previous electoral agreement between several left-wing parties in the first round of the 2022 legislative elections, which obtained 25.78% of the votes. With this second place, the left bloc can hope for between 125 and 165 seats in the National Assembly, according to an initial Ipsos-Talan projection to be handled with caution – which would make it the second political force in the hemicycle.
Jean-Luc Mélenchon, founder of LFI, praised “a heavy and indisputable defeat” for the presidential camp. He also assured that the party “will withdraw” her candidacies in the constituencies where she came in third place and where the National Rally is leading in view of the second round. Raphaël Glucksmann, head of the PS-Place publique list for the European elections, and Marine Tondelier, head of the Ecologistes-EELV, have also called for blocking the RN’s path.
The presidential camp in disarray with 21% of the votes
The Head of State’s supporters find themselves in a delicate position. The central bloc, which notably includes Renaissance, the MoDem and Horizons under the banner Ensemble, obtained only 21% of the votes in the first round, according to our Ipsos-Talan estimate. The presidential camp could thus be limited to a contingent of between 70 and 100 deputies, according to a projection to be taken with caution.
Emmanuel Macron reacted by greeting “high turnout in the first round [qui] testifies to the importance of this vote for all our compatriots and the desire to clarify the political situation”. The president also called for a “large gathering clearly Democrat and Republican” against the RN in the run-up to the second round, just like the Prime Minister, Gabriel Attal, for whom “Not a single vote should go to the National Rally”. He called au “withdrawal of our candidates whose remaining in third position would have led to the election of a National Rally MP over another candidate who, like us, defends the values of the Republic”.
Several candidates re-elected in the first round, including Marine Le Pen and Olivier Faure
Several candidates obtained enough votes to be elected deputies in the first round of voting. Among them, we find around twenty RN candidates, including Marine Le Pen (11th constituency of Pas-de-Calais), Julien Odoul (3rd constituency of Yonne) or Bruno Bilde (12th constituency of Pas-de-Calais).
On the left, the national secretary of the Socialist Party, Olivier Faure, was also re-elected in the first round in the 11th constituency of Seine-et-Marne with 53.42% of the vote, just like the NFP-Les Ecologistes MP Sandrine Rousseau (9th constituency of Paris, 52.13%) or the NFP-PCF candidate Elsa Faucillon (1st constituency of Hauts-de-Seine, 64.83%). In the presidential camp, Pierre Cazeneuve won the election on June 30 in the 7th constituency of Hauts-de-Seine (53.2%).
Several personalities eliminated in the first round
Former socialist minister Jérôme Cahuzac, who presented himself as an independent candidate in the 3rd constituency of Lot-et-Garonne, finished in fourth place in this first round with 14.56% of the votes cast. The former member of the government, convicted of tax fraud and laundering of tax fraud, only obtained the support of 9.90% of voters registered on the electoral lists, and therefore did not reach the 12.5% necessary for move on to the second round. Same thing for Damien Abad, Elisabeth Borne’s short-lived Minister of Solidarity indicted for attempted rape, who only obtained 12.39% of registered voters in the 5th constituency of Ain.
On the left, the national secretary of the PCF, Fabien Roussel, announced that he was eliminated in the first round in the 20th constituency of the North, a seat he had held since 2017. The RN candidate in this constituency, Guillaume Florquin, came in first place with 50.3% of the votes cast according to the Ministry of the Interior, thus winning the seat of deputy by a hair’s breadth in the first round of voting.
