National Rally wins first round of French presidential election – Ministry of Foreign Affairs

– Against us The second round is the League of Nations. Now is the time to build a broad, clear Democratic and Republican alliance, explain French President Emmanuel Macron Sunday night.

The statement could be considered cryptic, to say the least.

In France’s recent political history, we have seen how the traditional left-wing and right-wing parties successfully – admittedly not easily – formed a republican front against the far right and prevented the far right from coming to power.

Professor at Sciences Po Paris, France Roman Lachatan Yet forming a united front against the far right in this summer’s parliamentary elections looks highly uncertain.

The far-right National Rally (RN) has won the first round of France’s parliamentary elections with a third of the votes.

The left-wing New Popular Front looks set to come in second with just under 30 percent of the vote. Emmanuel Macron The centrist Jäses electoral alliance came in third with around 20% of the vote.

“Nothing strange”

Director of Research, Center for Political Studies, Sciences Po Paris Sylvain Braudin I think the election results were in line with predictions.

– Brouard told STT on Monday that the only surprise was the greater scope of activity on the left than expected, but this was not clearly reflected in the results.

Just four days after President Emmanuel Macron dissolved France’s parliament, France’s diverse and fragmented political left has managed to form an electoral coalition.

Brouard said the setup for round two looks pretty certain in many ways.

– The weakening of the Republicans is already clear. It is also clear that the presidential election coalition is much weaker than before. His (Macron) team may be halved in size, or even reduced by a third.

Brouard said the only outstanding question was whether the National Alliance would have a relative or simple majority in parliament.

Split front against far right

Professor Lachat believes that although the left won the votes of young people in the election and won the votes of young people in the second round of elections, there is still great uncertainty as to whether it can attract the centrist and moderate right supporters behind it in the second round of elections to improve the results of the second parliamentary election this year.

Brouard also believes that it is difficult to see that voters of Macron’s “Solidarity” party will support the left-wing electoral alliance in the largest numbers.

– If you start by presenting your party as the only alternative to extremist movements and put the left electoral alliance and the far right on the same line, it will be difficult to convince voters in a week that they should vote Leave now, says Browder.

Before the election, Macron presented his centrist Yes electoral coalition as the only alternative to “extreme” politics, with the president referring to the National Rally (RN) and the left-wing New Popular Front.

The chairmanship of the far-left France Indomitable party has become a problem for many moderate voters Jean-Luc Melenchonwho is known for his sharp rhetoric. In fact, many centrists urged voters to vote against the far right but not against the candidate of the left-wing group Aristocratic Fransca party. This is what he did For example, the Minister of Finance Bruno Lemaire.

The left may have the votes of the centre and possibly those who did not vote in the first round, but according to Brouard it is now fairly certain that it will not get a simple majority in parliament.