How Marine Le Pen’s party pulled off a surprise victory in France’s first round of National Assembly elections.
Far right succeeds in France: President Emmanuel Macron decided to hold a snap election for the French National Assembly last month, as opposed to waiting until October, when Macron’s pollsters had told him his defeat would be a sure thing.
He may be regretting that choice now, as it delivered a decisive first-round win to Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally party. National Rally won 33 percent of the vote, while a coalition of leftists called the New Popular Front won 28 percent of the vote. Macron’s party, Renaissance, won about 20 percent of the vote.
This was no fluke. Voter turnout was extremely high—67 percent, compared to 47.5 percent in the first round of the 2022 elections—reflecting how intensely voters felt about registering their preferences.
More than 70 candidates of the 577-seat National Assembly were elected outright, with solid enough majorities that negate the need for more rounds of elections. “Projections from several polling institutes suggested the National Rally would win between 240 and 310 seats in the runoff for the 577-seat National Assembly; the New Popular Front between 150 and 200 seats; and Mr. Macron’s Renaissance party and its allies between 70 and 120 seats”, reports The New York Times. “The ranges are broad because much can change in the week before the second round. For an absolute majority, a party needs 289 seats.”
Now Macron and New Popular Front are “weighing whether to pull candidates from the second round of the legislative election on Sunday to keep the ascendant far-right National Rally out of power”, reports Bloomberg. The two parties are worried about vote-splitting, and they’re trying to unite to keep Le Pen’s party from having an absolute majority, which would make it easier for them to push through their domestic policy agenda, which is protectionist and heavily anti-immigrant.
