National Rally leads first round of French legislative elections | French legislative elections 2024

French voters propelled the far-right National Rally (RN) party to the lead in the first round of legislative elections on Sunday.

The RN would collect 33.2% of the votes, according to Ipsos Talan estimates. This party has a good chance of winning a majority in the lower house of Parliament for the first time. The party thus confirms its success in the European elections, which pushed Mr. Macron to dissolve Parliament three weeks ago and call a surprise vote.

The New Popular Front (NFP), a coalition of left-wing parties, would be second with 28.1% of the votes, according to Ipsos Talan.

Ultimately, Emmanuel Macron’s Ensemble presidential majority would collect 21% of the votes, again according to Ipsos Talan.

French far-right leader Marine Le Pen has called on voters to give the National Rally a absolute majority in Parliament in a speech delivered shortly after the announcement of the first results estimates. She said a majority would allow the RN to form a new government, with party president Jordan Bardella as prime minister, to work towards RELAUNCH from France.

The French have thus, in an unambiguous vote, demonstrated their desire to turn the page after seven years of contemptuous and corrosive power.

She encouraged her voters to vote in the second round, the vote for which will take place on July 7, in order to avoida far left with violent, anti-Semitic and anti-republican tendencies does not come to power with Jean-Luc Mélenchon as prime minister.

Mr. Mélenchon, one of the headliners of the NFPsaid in a speech that the coalition represents the only alternativeinviting the French to vote for this group in the second round.

It is not just about voting against the RN or just about blocking it. It is about voting for another future, respectful of every human being and of all living things.said Mr. Mélenchon.

Unlike the National Rally and the New Popular Front, the Ensemble presidential majority had a disappointing evening. At a press conference, the outgoing Prime Minister, Gabriel Attal, invited the French to block the RN in the second round.

Never in our democracy has the National Assembly risked, like this evening, being dominated by the extreme righta dit M. Attal.

Not a single vote should go to the National Rally! he chanted.

A decisive second round

The second round will be decisive, but huge questions remain about how Emmanuel Macron will share power with a prime minister hostile to most of his policies.

The outcome of the two-round election could have consequences for European financial markets, Western support for Ukraine and the way France’s nuclear arsenal and global military force are managed.

Many French voters are frustrated by inflation and economic concerns, as well as by the leadership of President Emmanuel Macron, whom they see as arrogant and out of touch with their lives.

The RN by Marine Le Pen has also exploited this discontent, notably on online platforms like TikTok, and taken the lead in pre-election opinion polls.

The NFP also poses a challenge to business-friendly Mr Macron and his centrist alliance Together for the Republic. NFP includes French socialists and communists as well as the far-left France Insoumise party and pledges to overturn a deeply unpopular pension reform law that raised the retirement age from 62 to 64, among other reforms economic.

There are 49.5 million registered voters who will choose 577 members of the National Assembly, the influential lower house of the French Parliament, in the two-round vote.

The participation rate at 5 p.m. in the first round amounted to 59.39%, according to figures from the Ministry of the Interior, or 20 points more than at the same time during the 2022 legislative elections.

The vote takes place during the traditional first week of France’s summer holidays and requests for postal votes have been at least five times higher than in 2022.

Mr Macron voted in Le Touquet, a seaside town in northern France, with his wife Brigitte. Ms. Le Pen, for her part, voted in her party’s stronghold, in the north of France.

Mr Macron called early elections after his party was defeated in European Parliament elections in early June by the RNwhich has historical links to racism and anti-Semitism and is hostile to France’s Muslim community. RN also has historical ties to Russia.

Mr Macron’s appeal was a bold gamble that French voters who had been content with the European elections would be induced to vote for moderate forces in national elections to prevent the far right from coming to power.

Although Mr Macron has said he will not step down before his presidential term expires in 2027, a scenario of cohabitation would weaken him at home and on the world stage.

Markets shaken

The results of the first round give an idea of ​​the general sentiment of the voters but not necessarily of the overall composition of the next National Assembly. Predictions are difficult because of the complexity of the electoral system and the fact that parties will work between the two rounds to conclude alliances in some constituencies or to withdraw in others.

In the past, such tactical maneuvers have helped keep far-right candidates out of power. However, support for Ms. Le Pen’s party has become widespread.

Mr Bardella, who has no governing experience, says he would use prime ministerial powers to prevent Mr Macron from continuing to supply long-range weapons to Ukraine for the war against Russia.

The RN also questions the right to citizenship of people born in France and wishes to restrict the rights of French citizens who have dual nationality. Opponents say it violates human rights and poses a threat to France’s democratic ideals.

Meanwhile, the promises of huge public spending by the RN and in particular the left-wing coalition have shaken markets and raised concerns about France’s heavy debt, already criticized by European Union watchdogs.

In New Caledonia, a restive French territory in the Pacific, polling stations closed early due to a curfew that authorities there extended until July 8.

Violence erupted there on May 13, leaving nine people dead after two weeks of unrest, over attempts by the Macron government to amend the French constitution and change New Caledonia’s electoral rolls, which the indigenous Kanak people feared would further marginalize them. They have long sought freedom from France.

Voters from the other French overseas territories of Saint-Pierre and Miquelon, Saint-Barthélemy, Saint-Martin, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Guyana and French Polynesia as well as those who were expected to vote in offices opened by embassies and consular posts across the Americas voted on Saturday.