COPY LINK

ELECTIONS

French elections: Deadline for candidates to drop out in order to block far-right

Candidates in France face a Tuesday deadline to register for the run-off round of a high-stakes parliamentary election, as President Emmanuel Macron's centrist camp and the left-wing alliance scrambled to prevent the far right from taking power.

Published: 2 July 2024 10:55 CEST
Updated: 2 July 2024 16:08 CEST

French elections: Deadline for candidates to drop out in order to block far-right

France's Prime Minister Gabriel Attal giving a speech after the announcement of the results of the first round of French parliamentary elections. Photo by Ludovic MARIN / AFP

On Sunday, French people go to polls for the decisive final round of the snap election Macron called after his camp received a drubbing in European elections last month.

His gamble appears to have backfired, with the far-right Rassemblement National (RN) of Marine Le Pen scoring a victory in the first round of voting last Sunday.

Macron’s centrists trailed in third place behind the left-wing Nouveau Front Populaire (NFP) alliance.

Listen to the team from The Local discussing all the election latest on the Talking France podcast. Download here or listen on the link below

Faced with the prospect of the far right taking power in France for the first time since the country’s occupation by Nazi Germany during World War II, Macron’s camp has begun cooperating with the NFP.

The rivals are hoping that tactical voting will prevent the RN winning the 289 seats needed for an absolute majority – especially in the ‘triangulaires‘ or three-way second round contests.

Candidates have the right to withdraw between the rounds and in constituencies that face a three-way run-off between candidates are the far-right, the centre and the left the third-placed candidate is being urged to drop out in order to avod splitting the anti far-right vote.

The deadline to decide whether to stand down is 6pm on Tuesday. According to a provisional count by AFP, at least 200 left-wing or centrist candidates have already dropped out.

Although NPF leaders immediately said that they would withdraw candidates, the Macron camp said only that withdrawals would be made on a ‘case by case’ basis.

Speaking to broadcaster TF1 on Monday evening, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal once again urged voters not to give the far-right an absolute majority.

“That would be catastrophic for the French,” he said, adding that the far-right would fuel divisions in society.

Third-place candidates who qualified for the second round have been urged to drop out to present a united front against the far right.

Meanwhile an RN candidate has withdrawn from the race after photos surfaced of her wearing a Nazi cap. Ludivine Daoudi on Sunday came third in her district in the northwestern area of Calvados, but a photo of her allegedly wearing a cap from the Luftwaffe air force of Nazi Germany sparked controversy online.

“Only a strong republican front, uniting the left, centre and conservatives, can keep the far right at bay and prevent France from tipping over,” daily Le Monde said in an editorial.

Le Pen has urged voters to give the RN an absolute majority, which would see Jordan Bardella, the 28-year-old RN chief with no governing experience, become prime minister.

But most projections show the RN falling short of an absolute majority – although the final outcome remains far from certain.

The RN garnered 33 percent of the vote last Sunday, compared to 28 percent for the NFP alliance and just over 20 percent for Macron’s camp.

Speaking on television on Monday night, Bardella derided efforts by Macron’s camp and the left-wing coalition to put up a united front, suggesting that the “dishonourable” alliance had been formed out of desperation.

He accused the French president of coming “to the rescue of a violent extreme-left movement” he himself had denounced just days ago.

Macron convened a cabinet meeting Monday to decide a further course of action.

“Let’s not be mistaken. It’s the far right that’s on its way to the highest office, no one else,” he said at the meeting, according to one participant.

The emotion was palpable, with several ministers dropping out of the race.

“We’ve known happier meetings,” one minister told Le Monde.

France’s Euro 2024 star Jules Kounde was the latest football player to call on voters to block the far-right.

“Obviously I was disappointed to see the direction our country is taking with a big level of support for a party that is against our values of unity and respect, and that wants to divide the French people,” said Kounde, the 25-year-old Barcelona defender.

“Nothing is decided yet, and I think it will be important to block the far right and the RN,” he added, after France beat Belgium 1-0 in Duesseldorf to reach the Euro 2024 quarter-finals.

OPINION: The best France can hope for now is 12 months of chaos

Analysts say the most likely outcome of the snap election is a hung parliament that could lead to months of political paralysis and chaos.

With a total of 76 candidates elected outright in the first round, the final composition of the 577-seat National Assembly will be clear only after the second round.

If the RN takes an absolute majority and Bardella becomes prime minister, this would create a tense period of “cohabitation” with Macron, who has vowed to serve out his term until 2027.

The election results fuelled fresh criticism of Macron’s decision to call the vote in the first place, a move he took with only a tight circle of advisors.

The chaos risks damaging the international credibility of Macron, who is set to attend a NATO summit in Washington immediately after the vote.

Member comments

Become a Member to leave a comment.

A hung parliament with a large eurosceptic, anti-immigration contingent could weaken France’s international standing and threaten Western unity in the face of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

With the country on tenterhooks, last week saw more than 200 tactical-voting pacts between centre and left wing candidates in seats to attempt to prevent the RN winning an absolute majority.

This has been hailed as a return of the anti-far right “Republican Front” first summoned when Marine Le Pen’s father Jean-Marie faced Jacques Chirac in the run-off of 2002 presidential elections.

Following the pacts, opinion polls forecast that the RN would fall short of the 289 seats needed for an outright majority in the 577-seat National Assembly, while still becoming the largest party.

Such an outcome could allow Macron to possibly build a broad coalition against the RN and keep Gabriel Attal as prime minister on a caretaker basis.

But it could also herald a long period of paralysed politics in France, as it prepares to host the Olympics from July 26th.

“Today the danger is a majority dominated by the far right and that would be catastrophic,” Attal said in a final pre-election interview with French television on Friday.

Many in France remain baffled over why Macron called an election which could end with the RN doubling its presence in parliament and his contingent of centrist MPs halving in number.

But the president, known for his theatrical gestures, appears intent on executing what he calls a “clarification” of French politics, which he hopes will eventually leave three clear camps of far right, centre and hard left.

The final opinion polls published by two organisations on Friday projected the RN would win between 170 to 210 seats, followed by the Nouveau Front Populaire (NFP) broad left-wing coalition on 145 to 185 and Macron’s centrists on 118 to 150.

Explained: The main parties and big names in France’s snap elections

While Macron’s Ensemble alliance is forecast to come third, the more successful NFP is a fragile mix of several warring factions ranging from traditional Socialists to the hard-left La France Insoumise (LFI) of firebrand Jean-Luc Melenchon.

“France is on the cusp of a seismic political shift,” said analysts at the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR), warning that even if Macron controlled the government after the election he would face “legislative gridlocks”.

This would weaken “France’s voice on the European and international stage.”

Macron, who disappeared from public view over recent days in order not to provoke the electorate further, has vowed to serve out his term until 2027, when he must step down.

That is when Le Pen scents her best chance to win the Elysée presidential palace at the fourth attempt.

Le Pen has angrily denounced what she has described as Macron’s vision for “one party” rule spanning the right to left by excluding the RN and lashed out at the French elites, which she says conspire against it.

But after the success of the first round, the RN had a sometimes tricky final week of campaigning with a handful of scandals involving RN candidates – including one who had been photographed wearing a Nazi military cap.

After voting began on Saturday in France’s overseas territories, polls opened in mainland France at 8am and were due to close by 8pm.

Preliminary results – which usually give a very close idea of the final outcome – are published shortly afterwards.

A total of 30,000 police, including 5,000 in Paris, have been deployed this weekend to head off trouble.

Follow all the latest news and analysis in English from 8pm on Sunday HERE