Keystone-SDA
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July 1, 2024 – 1:38 p.m.
(Keystone-ATS) France voted for the far right in the first round of the legislative elections on Sunday. But the other parties will do everything this week to block his path to power between voting instructions and candidate withdrawals.
Three weeks after the political earthquake caused by President Emmanuel Macron’s dissolution of the National Assembly, the French voted massively on Sunday in the first round, marked by a turnout of 66.71%.
With more than 33% of the vote and 10.6 million votes, the National Rally (RN, far right) and its allies obtained their best score in the first round of a vote in the wake of the European elections. The party struck a major blow, electing 39 deputies, starting with its figurehead Marine Le Pen.
The Popular Front, which brings together left-wing parties, won nearly 28% of the vote and already has 32 elected representatives. Emmanuel Macron’s presidential camp confirmed the rout in the European elections and came in third with only 20%.
“Verdict without appeal”
The far right has asked the French to give it an absolute majority next Sunday in the second round, which will be “one of the most decisive in the entire history of the French Fifth Republic,” founded in 1958, said the young president. of the RN, Jordan Bardella.
The French “rendered a final verdict”, rejoiced the 28-year-old young man on Sunday evening. “We need an absolute majority,” launched Marine Le Pen, who distanced herself from her father who co-founded the National Front (which became RN in 2018) in 1972, with two former Waffen-SS.
If Jordan Bardella becomes prime minister, it would be the first time that a government from the far right has led France since World War II, during which an unelected collaborationist regime was installed.
A smooth-looking face embodying a demonized Lepenist party, Jordan Bardella promised to be “a Prime Minister of cohabitation, respectful of the Constitution and the function of the President of the Republic, but uncompromising” on his government project.
Assembly blocked?
While the traditional “republican front” in France against the RN appears less systematic than in the past, the party of Jordan Bardella and Marine Le Pen is able to obtain a strong relative majority or even an absolute majority next Sunday.
Pro-European President Emmanuel Macron could be forced into unprecedented and stormy cohabitation with the far right. But the scenario of a blocked National Assembly, with no possible majority alliances among the three blocs present, also remains a possibility.
“We have seven days to save France from a catastrophe,” said Social Democratic MEP Raphaël Glucksmann, who called on all candidates who came in third place to withdraw in the second round.
But for its radical left ally La France insoumise (LFI), this will only apply where the RN has “arrived in the lead”, specified its leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon. The left alliance denounces in any case the “cacophony” within the presidential majority which is having difficulty expressing a single position on the second round.
Divergences in the presidential camp
Rather than the “disastrous project” of the RN, this is the line defended by the current Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, who also recognized that “this will involve the withdrawal of (his) candidates” in “third position”. But only to benefit “another candidate who defends the values of the Republic”, he added.
The Minister of Economy Bruno Le Maire called on Monday to vote for “the social-democratic camp” which does not include LFI, which has become a turn-off for many voters on the left and right. And the outgoing president of the National Assembly, Yaël Braun-Pivet, is calling for a “grand coalition” also including the party of the traditional right (Les Républicains).
As it stands, the projections of the polling institutes anticipate a large relative majority of at least 240 seats for Jordan Bardella’s troops, or even a short absolute majority of up to 295 seats. But these projections are made before withdrawals. Because the result of the vote will be played out in large part between now and Tuesday 6:00 p.m., the deadline set for candidates to decide whether to stay or withdraw.
“Even if voters do not mechanically follow the instructions of their political leaders, we will have an effect that will rather work against the RN,” commented the deputy general director of the Ipsos institute Brice Teinturier. The political scientist is counting “rather on a relative majority than an absolute majority.”
