French President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist alliance and the left-wing New Popular Front were weighing whether to pull candidates from the second round of the legislative election next Sunday to keep the ascendant far-right National Rally out of power.
Marine Le Pen’s National Rally dominated the first round of voting Sunday, locking up 33.2 per cent of the vote, according to interior ministry figures. The New Popular Front got 28 per cent and Macron’s coalition got 20.8 per cent.
Winning an absolute majority of seats in the second round would hand the premiership to National Rally President Jordan Bardella and assure the party’s ability to easily pass legislation.
Traditionally, France’s mainstream has banded together to keep the far-right – which has never held power in the modern French republic – out of government.
“The lesson of today is that the far-right is at the gates of power,” French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal told supporters Sunday night. “Our objective is clear: to prevent the National Rally from having an absolute majority.”
The French political world is embarking on an intense two-day period of horse trading as each party tries to maximise its chances in the final ballot next weekend.
In more than half of the 577 constituencies, three people qualified for the run-offs. In those situations, the third-placed candidate can withdraw to boost the chances of another mainstream party defeating the National Rally.
The deadline for filing papers for the second round is 6pm on Tuesday, and at that point the picture will become clearer.
Jean-Luc Melenchon of the New Popular Front, an alliance of left-wing parties, said that he would encourage third-placed candidates from his group to withdraw, while Macron himself released a statement calling for “a broad, clearly democratic and republican alliance for the second round”.
Macron’s Renaissance party said it would pull third-placed candidates where they placed third to help those who respect “the values of the republic” beat the far-right.
That’s the catch though – Melenchon’s France Unbowed has proposed a raft of spending that would flout European Union budget rules and potentially alarm investors. So it’s not clear whether Macron’s party will withdraw in races where the far left would benefit.
In an early sign that Macron’s team is seeking to build alliances with the left, the prime minister decided Sunday evening to suspend the implementation of an unpopular change to unemployment insurance.
The government had said the plans would encourage people into work by paring back the generosity of welfare, but opposition parties widely criticised the move at a time when joblessness has risen.
Even though Macron’s presidency isn’t formally at stake – and he’s said he has no plans to resign – Sunday’s result indicates he’ll either have to share governing responsibilities with Le Pen’s group or manage a parliament that is basically gridlocked.
The turmoil also risks undermining Macron’s stature as an international leader taking a prime role in helping Ukraine fight the Russian invasion. In the immediate aftermath of the second round he is due to attend the Nato summit in Washington.
The arrival of anti-immigration and Eurosceptic RN in government would be a turning point in French modern history: the first time a far-right force has taken power in the country since World War II, when it was occupied by Nazi Germany.
“Nothing is won and the second round is decisive,” Le Pen, who has long worked to distance the party from its extremist origins, told supporters on Sunday.
“We need an absolute majority so that Jordan Bardella is in eight days named prime minister by Emmanuel Macron.”
Bardella said he wanted to be the “prime minister of all French”. He has said he will only form a government if the RN wins an absolute majority in the elections.
On Sunday night, the mood was gloomy at the Republique square in Paris, where a few thousand anti-RN protesters gathered at a rally of the leftist alliance.
Najiya Khaldi, a 33-year-old teacher, said she felt “disgust, sadness and fear” at the RN’s strong results.
“I am not used to demonstrating,” she said. “I think I came to reassure myself, to not feel alone.”
French daily Liberation urged voters to unite to halt the march of the far-right. “After the shock, form a block,” the newspaper said on its Monday front page.
Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse and Associated Press
