A victory for the extreme right in the first round
France’s centrist and progressive parties are battling to form a united front after Marine Le Pen’s party won the first round of Sunday’s snap parliamentary election. These elections have brought the extreme right even closer to power. Reagrupament Nacional (RN) and its allies won 33% of the vote, while the New Popular Front (NFP) got 28% and President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist bloc came third with 22% of the vote .
Negotiations and tactical voting plans
Most of the 577 seats in the National Assembly will be decided in a second round on Sunday. Rival parties are negotiating and making tactical voting plans to try to slow the rise of the RN. The RN is close to becoming the dominant party in Parliament, but the number of seats it will get is uncertain. This will depend on the political agreements that his rivals reach in the coming days.
The strategy of the ‘republican front’
The centrist prime minister, Gabriel Attal, has warned that the extreme right is at the gates of power and has urged voters not to give a single vote to the RN in the second round. In the past, when faced with the extreme right close to power, traditional right-wing and left-wing parties reached agreements to withdraw candidates from the second round and avoid splitting the vote. But the tactical voting strategy known as the ‘Republican front’ is less certain than ever.
Withdrawal of candidates and Macron’s position
The leaders of Macron’s centrist alliance and the NFP have indicated they will withdraw their own candidates in districts where another candidate is better positioned to beat the RN. It is not clear how uniformly this strategy will be applied. Macron has called on voters to support clearly Republican and Democratic candidates, which would exclude RN candidates and a key member of the NFP alliance, Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s France Insubmissive (LFI) party. The left has called for a clearer position from Macron and the centrists.
The second round will be decisive
In short, France’s centrist and progressive parties are struggling to form a united front to stem the rise of the far-right represented by the National Reunion. Negotiations and tactical voting plans are underway to try to prevent the RN from becoming the dominant party in Parliament. The second round of the parliamentary elections will be decisive in determining the political future of France.