France holds ‘shocking’ election

Paris: French elections Legislative elections will be held on Sunday (July 7) This would be decisive for its political future and could make the far right the largest party in parliament for the first time.

Centrist President Emmanuel Macron The defeat in the June legislative electionsMany observers saw it as a gamble that backfired.

After winning the first round of elections on June 30, three-time presidential candidate Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally (RN) party believes it can win an absolute majority in parliament and elect her protégé and party leader, 28-year-old Jordan Bardella, as prime minister.

But last week, centre- and left-wing candidates reached more than 200 strategic voting agreements to prevent the National Front (RN) from winning the election, thereby recreating the glory of the anti-far-right “Republican Front” that was first formed when Marine Le Pen’s father Jean-Marie faced Jacques Chirac in the 2002 presidential runoff.

The latest opinion polls show that although the National Party is still the largest party in parliament, its seats are still far from the 289 seats needed to gain an absolute majority in the 577-seat National Assembly.

‘Disastrous’

Such an outcome could make it possible for Macron to form a broad coalition to fight the National Front and keep Gabriel Attal as caretaker prime minister. But it could also herald a long period of political paralysis in France as it prepares to host the Olympics on July 26.

“The danger today is that the extreme right will have a majority, which would be catastrophic,” Attal said on Friday in his final interview with French television before the election.

Many remain puzzled as to why Macron would call an election he had no obligation to hold and one that could result in the National Front doubling its seats in parliament while Macron’s centrist army of lawmakers being halved in size.

But the president, who is known for his love of exaggerated actions, seems to be interested in so-called “clarification” of the French political situation, hoping to eventually divide the French political situation into three clear camps: the far right, the center and the far left.

Final opinion polls published by two agencies on Friday showed the Nationalist Party would win between 170 and 210 seats, followed by the New Popular Front (NFP) broad left coalition with 145 to 185 seats and Macron’s centrist party with 118 to 150 seats.

With Macron’s Solidarity party expected to come in third, the success of the French nationalist party marks another key election theme, although the party’s unity looks fragile as its members include traditional socialists and the far-left France Insubordinate led by radical Jean-Luc Mélenchon.

‘Weakened French voice’

Whatever the outcome, the election threatens to undermine Macron’s standing as one of Europe’s top figures and Ukraine’s key Western bulwark against Russian aggression.

Analysts at the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) said “France is on the brink of a major political shift” and warned that even if Macron took control of the government after the election he would face “legislative deadlock” that would weaken “France’s voice in Europe and on the international stage.”

Macron, who has disappeared from public view in the past few days in an apparent effort not to anger voters, has vowed to serve until 2027, when he must step down and Le Pen will have her best chance of moving into the Elysee Palace.

Le Pen angrily denounced Macron’s vision of a “one-party system” that runs from the right to the left by excluding the National Front, and fiercely criticized French elites who she said were conspiring with Macron against that vision.

But after its success in the first round, the Nationalist party faced some tough problems in the final week of the campaign, with scandals involving its candidates – including one candidate being photographed wearing a Nazi Luftwaffe hat – putting Le Pen and Bardella under pressure.

Polls in mainland France will open at 06:00 GMT on Saturday, after voting begins in France’s overseas territories, and close at 18:00 GMT.

Election result forecasts are typically released shortly after an election, followed by rapid responses from political leaders amid election frenzy, keeping the nation engrossed.

More than 50 candidates and campaigners were physically attacked during the four-week campaign, the shortest in modern French history.

Around 30,000 police officers, including 5,000 in Paris, will be deployed this weekend to deal with the unrest.