French elections: Far right surges in first round, left comes second ahead of Macron’s camp

The far-right Rassemblement National made historic progress in the first round of France’s snap legislative elections on Sunday, June 30, in a vote marked by a high increase in turnout. With 33.5% of the vote together with its allies, according to initial estimates, the party led by Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella almost doubled its score from the 2022 elections, as it hopes to conquer power for the first time.

President Emmanuel Macron, who called the snap elections on June 9 after his side’s defeat in the European elections, sees his coalition rank third, with 20.7%, as the alliance of left-wing parties, the Nouveau Front Populaire, reached 28.1%, according to the initial estimates from Ipsos Talan for France Télévisions, Radio France, France24/RFI and LCP Assemblée Nationale.

Le Pen called on voters to give her party an “absolute majority” in the Assemblée Nationale next Sunday. “We need an absolute majority for Jordan Bardella to be named prime minister by Emmanuel Macron in eight days,” she said, saying a win would enable the RN to work on France’s “recovery” and to “avoid the country falling into the hands of (…) a far left leaning toward violence.”

via www.lemonde.fr