The final round of the snap parliamentary elections in France is over, marking the record highest turnout. The far-right National Rally (RN) which dominated last week’s first round is unlikely to secure clear majority, as per early projections.
The polling closed at 8:00 pm. The results have started coming out and will be completed by Monday morning.
According to the reported figures, the turnout was recorded at 59.71% till 5:00 pm local time (15:00 GMT). It was up from 59.39% during the first round last Sunday and was significantly higher than the second round in 2022 when the figure was 38.1%. It was the highest since 1981. Left-wing and centrist parties did their best the last time today to block the RN secure a majority, reports said.
A total of 501 seats, out of 577, were up for grabs in this round while the other 76 were secured outright in the first round. Political analysts think the high turnout for the second round may lead to the first far-right government since the World War II Nazi occupation. There are reports Marine Le Pen’s anti-immigration, nationalist party – NR – could win a majority for the first time after all results are announced.
President Macron’s centrist political allies are furious at his decision to call this election after the NR defeated his party in European elections. They fear the centrist coalition will be wiped out. Le Pen lodged herself in the northern town of Henin-Beaumont in the early 2000s, hoping to win over disappointed voters over the new economy. It was a decade-long effort of her to win over voters from across France. Henin-Beaumont is where Le Pen began to turn her father’s party from a political recluse to a winning giant. She took the reins of the NR in 2012.
The whole day opposition parties made deals to block a landslide victory for Ms. Le Pen’s far-right in this round. Several candidates who qualified for round two from the left-wing alliance of the New Popular Front and President Emmanuel Macron’s centrists have stepped aside to favor the candidate most likely to defeat the NR. Some 218 candidates eligible to compete in the second round were pulled out. Of them, 130 were on the left, and 82 came from the Macron-led alliance – Ensemble.
Macron called this vote after the NR made huge gains in the June 9 European elections believing voters would block the NR as it happened in the past, but it proved otherwise. Marine Le Pen called on voters to give the party an absolute majority in this round.
It is also said the NR’s victory would further unite far-right movements at the EU level as Marine Le Pen is expected to join ‘Patriots of Europe’, the newly established group by the Hungarian Prime Minister. What complete official results prove will be clear by tomorrow morning (Monday).
(By Rana Kashif)
