Marine Le Pen’s Right-wing National Rally (RN) is projected to win the first round of legislative elections in France, leaving incumbent President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist alliance lagging behind in third. The Mail has more.
The projections gave the RN 34% of the vote, compared to 29.1% for the Left-wing New Popular Front alliance and just 22% for Macron’s centrist camp.
Many French voters are frustrated about inflation and other economic concerns, as well as Macron’s leadership, seen as arrogant and out-of-touch with their lives. The National Rally party has tapped that discontent, notably via online platforms such as TikTok.
Le Pen… said Macron’s alliance was “almost wiped out” during the first round of voting.
The first round of this year’s election, called by Macron after a devastating loss in the European Parliament elections earlier this month, saw record levels of turnout.
Polls suggested 67.5% of people voted in the national election, the highest participation in a regular format legislative election in France since 1981. The final turnout in 2022, the last time national elections were held in the nation, was just 47.5%.
Despite the win, it is still not currently clear whether Le Pen’s party would win an absolute majority of seats in the new National Assembly lower house in the July 7th second round and claim the post of Prime Minister.
The second round will see run-off votes take place in seats where there was no absolute majority, allowing the final shape of the National Assembly to form.
The vote could give 28 year-old RN party chief Jordan Bardella, a protege of its longtime leader Marine Le Pen, the chance to form a government…
Bardella has previously said he would only form a government if the RN wins an absolute majority in the elections, but the party has said that the far-Right wunderkind would become the country’s Prime Minister, while Macron would stay President until his term expires in 2027 in an awkward power-sharing arrangement called ‘cohabitation’ in France. …
Speaking from her constituency of Hénin-Beaumont, in northern France, where she was elected to Parliament without the need for a second round, Le Pen said the RN was finally preparing for power for the first time in its history.
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