FR Parliamentary Elections

Nobody expected this. High drama, for sure, but this was a shock. When the graphics flashed up on all the big French channels, it was not the far right of Marine Le Pen and her young prime minister-in-waiting Jordan Bardella who were on course for victory. It was the left who had clinched it, and Emmanuel Macron's centrists had staged an unexpected comeback, pushing the far-right National Rally (RN) into third. Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the veteran left-wing firebrand seen by his critics as an extremist, wasted no time in proclaiming ...

video A left-wing alliance has won the most seats in the French parliament after tactical voting in Sunday’s second round election thwarted Marine Le Pen’s far-right party, but France will be left in political limbo after no party came close to winning an absolute majority. In a surprise result, the New Popular Front (NFP) – a cluster of several parties ranging from the far-left France Unbowed party to the more moderate Socialists and the Ecologists – won 182 seats in the National Assembly, making it the largest group but short of ...

French voters are heading to the polls on Sunday for the second and final round of voting in a snap parliamentary election. After an initial ballot suggested the far-right National Rally (RN) group would become the biggest party in France’s National Assembly, parties on the center-right and left have joined forces to try to block RN’s advance. Both President Emmanuel Macron’s “Together” (Ensemble) alliance and the left-wing New Popular Front (NFP) have called on voters to reject the party in the second round, and have withdrawn ...

Marine Le Pen’s National Rally is set to fall well short of an absolute majority in the French legislative election on Sunday, according to projections from two polling companies. The far-right group and its allies are on course to win between 210 and 240 of the 577 seats in the National Assembly, Ifop said on Thursday, significantly below the 289 that would enable it to pass bills easily and push through its agenda. A previous survey by Toluna-Harris Interactive released on Wednesday gave National Rally a range of 190 to 220 seats. ...

Marine Le Pen’s National Rally is scrambling to get an absolute majority in the final round of France’s legislative election Sunday as rival parties are maneuvering to keep the far-right party out of power. President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist group and the broad, left-wing New Popular Front alliance have pulled their candidates out of 215 runoffs with more than two candidates to avoid splitting the vote against the far right, according to a count by Le Monde newspaper. In response, the National Rally has been seeking allies to help ...

French President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist alliance and the left-wing New Popular Front are weighing whether to pull candidates from the second round of the legislative election on Sunday to keep the ascendant far-right National Rally out of power. Marine Le Pen’s National Rally dominated the first round of voting Sunday, locking up 33.2% of the vote, according to interior ministry figures. The New Popular Front got 28% and Macron’s coalition got 20.8%. Winning an absolute majority of seats in the second round would hand the ...