Exit polls showed that Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally ( RN ) party won the country’s parliamentary elections on Sunday, but the unanticipated outcome will depend on horsetrading in the days leading up to the run-off next week.
The RN was seen winning around 34 % of the vote, exit polls from Ipsos, Ifop, OpinionWay and Elabe showed. That was back of communist and moderate rivals, including Prez Emmanuel Macron’s Up alliance, whose alliance was seen winning 20.5 %- 23 %. The New Popular Front, a hurriedly assembled remaining- wing alliance, was projected to earn around 29 % of the ballot, the exit surveys showed.
Macron, who called the shock elections only three weeks ago, urged voters to support the far-right in the second round of voting. Le Pen called on voters to give the National Rally an “absolute lot” at congress. She claimed that a majority of the electorates may allow the far-right to form a new government with group leader Jordan Bardella as prime minister to contribute to France’s “recovery.” The 28-year-old Bardella has stated that he would oppose sending French troops to Ukraine, a possibility that Macron has n’t ruled out, and that he would also reject French deliveries of long-range missiles and other weapons designed to strike targets inside of Russia.
The leave polls were in line with the polls conducted before the election, but they provided much assurance as to whether the anti-immigrant, conservative RN will be able to form a government that will” cohabit” with Macron’s support for the EU. Before the July 7 run-off, there is now a month of political bargaining back. The outcome will depend on how the parties decide to form coalitions in each of France’s 577 divisions in the next round. In the past, France’s center- proper and centre- remaining parties have teamed up to keep the RN from taking office, but that powerful, called the “republican front” in France, is less certain than previously.
Participation in Sunday’s vote was great, underlining how France’s political turmoil has energised the public. By 1500 GMT, turnout was nearly 60 %, compared with 39.4 % two years ago- the highest comparable turnout figures since the 1986 legislative vote.
The RN has been a long-standing outcast and is now closer to taking office than ever. Le Pen has attempted to cleanse a group known for prejudice and racism, a strategy that has proven effective in the face of Macron’s growing voter resentment. Some voters are frustrated about prices and other financial concerns, as well as Macron’s management, seen as rude and out- of- touch with their lives. Le Pen’s pro- multiculturalism party has tapped that dissatisfaction, somewhat via online platforms like TikTok.
The new remaining alliance, the New Popular Front, even poses a problem to the pro- company Macron and his centrist ally. It includes, among other economic reforms, the European Socialists and Communists, the Greens, and the hard-left France Unbowed gathering, and pledges to repeal a controversial pension reform law that raised the retirement age to 64.
