Very precise victory in the first round of French elections. election notice

France’s far-right National Rally (RN) party has won a landslide victory in the first round of the country’s snap parliamentary elections.

Pollsters IFOP, Ipsos, OpinionWay and Ellabe confirmed Marine Le Pen’s RN winning almost 34 percent of the vote. The leftist Untouchable Prevailing Front (NFP) coalition looks all set to get about 29 percent and President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist Ensemble coalition about 20.5 percent.

The end result enables the RN to be in a position where it will, with a little luck, begin to think about establishing a central authority. However, forces across the rest of the political spectrum have suggested they will cooperate to block the far-right party’s celebration of a second round of voting on July 7.

Macron stunned the country by calling snap elections after the RN’s lead in the last generational ECU parliament elections, saying the anti-immigration party with longstanding ties to anti-Semitism would not repeat that success on the national stage.

Supporters waved French flags and marched in L.A. at a birthday celebration in leader Le Pen’s Henin-Beaumont constituency in northern France. Sang. Marseillaise, the national anthem.

“The French have shown their willingness to turn the page on a despicable and corrosive force,” he informed the excited family.

RN president Jordan Bardella, Le Pen’s disciple and prime ministerial candidate, said the second round could be “the most important in the history of the French Fifth Republic”.

He noted that Macron’s birthday celebrations had been lit and accused some at a distance of creating an “existential crisis” that is “a real threat to France and all the French people”.

Pollster Elabay said in a forecast for BFM TV that the RN and its allies could win 260–310 parliament seats in the second voting round on 7 July, while a poll by Ipsos predicted 230–280 seats for the RN and its allies. Had estimated. For France TV.

Both Le Pen and Bardella have said their parties are pursuing an absolute majority – a total of 289 seats – in the National Assembly, the lower chamber of France’s parliament.

Macron needs ‘broad democratic coalition’

The RN’s chances of winning power and establishing a central authority depend on political bargaining with its rivals in the coming days. During the day, centre-right and centre-left parties have worked together to establish a precise distance from power.

Macron called for a “broad” democratic coalition around the world.

“Facing national rallying, the time has come for a broad, unequivocally Democratic and Republican coalition for a second round,” he said in a statement.

He said the heavy turnout in the first round reflected “the importance of this vote for all our compatriots and the desire to clarify the political position”.

Prime Minister Gabriel Atal warned that some distance was at “the gates of power”, and “no vote should go to the National Rally”.

Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who leads the left-wing Popular Front, said he would field candidates who finished third in the first round of parliamentary elections in order to defeat the largest field of far-right RN candidates. -Horse racing can be ensured. Vote is coming.

If the negative candidate reaches 50 percent in the first round, the two claimants with the highest number automatically qualify for the second round, along with all those who have 12.5 percent of registered citizens. In the run-off, whoever wins the most votes takes the constituency.

Mélenchon said, “In line with our principles and our stance in all previous elections, we will never allow the National Rally to achieve victory.”

Laurent Berger, former general secretary of the French Democratic Confederation of Labor and former president of the ECU Industry Union Confederation, advised a “blockade” in a post on Twitter.

“This evening, our democracy and our republican values ​​are at stake as we face a national rally on the doorstep of power,” Berger said.

“In the face of danger… it is necessary to stop the far right”.

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On Sunday, Ipsos estimated that turnout at 8 p.m. (18:00 GMT) when polls closed was 65.5%, which would be the best since 1997.

The RN was politically untouchable in France for years, but Le Pen has sought to rebrand the party since taking control from her father Jean-Marie Le Pen and has now brought it closer to power than ever.

According to Rim-Sarah Alouane, an instructor at the Collège Toulouse-Capitole, Le Pen has “done plastic surgery to her party”.

“But is it still the same rotten, xenophobic, anti-Semitic, anti-Muslim, anti-minority party… We know what the far right stands for,” Alouane told Al Jazeera.

He said the vote also resulted in a rejection of Macron’s policies, describing the president as “arrogant” and promoting the rich.

“I personally know of cases of people who voted for the far right because of the policies made by Macron, especially at the economic level,” Allouane said.

This led to protests on the streets of Paris, Lyon, Nantes and other major cities.

Thousands of anti-RN protesters gathered at a rally of the leftist coalition at the Playground de la Republique in Paris on Sunday night.

Professor Nazia Khaldi, 33, said she felt “disgust, sadness and horror” at the acute effects of RN.

“I’m not used to performing,” he said. “I think I’m here to reassure myself, not to feel alone.”

If the RN prevails enough to maintain an absolute majority in the second round, it may develop a difficult period of “cohabitation” – when the president is from a different political party than the majority of MPs – with Macron, whose Has pledged to serve his tenure till 2027.

An additional end result could see protracted negotiations to form a permanent government.

Prospect research company Eurasia staff said the RN was now “likely” to fall short of an absolute majority. It said France was once dealing with “at least 12 months of a maliciously blocked National Assembly and – at best – a technocratic government of ‘national unity’ with limited ability to govern”.