The National Union has achieved a historic victory in the first round of the French parliamentary elections. Le Pen has tripled her result compared to the same round in 2022 and Emmanuel Macron has fallen to third place.
(in update)
In an election that saw record-breaking turnout, Marine Le Pen’s National Union won a clear victory over President Emmanuel Macron’s party, which fell to third place behind the Popular Left Front. The results prompted parties to join forces against the far right, immediately realising that some candidates would step aside in favour of others to make it harder for the National Union to achieve an absolute majority.
With counting still to be completed in seven electoral districts, provisional results reveal that the National Union won in circle 297s, followed by Popular Left Front, which won in 156of the Renaissance, which won in 67and the Republicans, who were ahead by 19. In official terms, the French Interior Ministry reported, according to AFP, the election of 39 deputies in the first round (which implies victories by absolute majority in the circles in question) for the National Union and 32 of parties that make up the Popular Left Front.
According to a Figaro projection on the distribution of seats in the French parliament, which has 577 seatsThe far right should obtain between 240 and 270 seats and the Popular Left Front between 180 and 200. Renascença, according to the data known so far, would fall to a figure between 60 and 90 and the Republicans would win between 30 and 50 seats.
The turnout rate in the first round of the legislative elections, estimated at 65.8%, represents a record going back decades. The French press, based on the latest official turnout data at 5:00 p.m. (59.39%), reports that such a high level of turnout has not been recorded since the first round of the French legislature in 1978, with the exception of 1986, when a short-lived system based on proportional representation was implemented. In short, this is a record of 46 years if the 1978 elections are taken into account, or 38 years in the case of the 1986 elections.
The surge in votes by French voters benefited the big winner of the night, the National Union, which had obtained 4.2 million voters in the first round of 2022 and the figures now point to 12 million.
Le Pen says “democracy has spoken”, Attal says “the far right is on the verge of power”: reactions to the victory of the National Union
The first results of the night provoked quick reactions from the defeated, mainly with the idea that in the second round of the elections more than two parties/coalitions would vote: Renascença and the Left Popular Front announced that they would withdraw their votes. candidates who came in third place, respectively, one in favor of the other. The objective is clear: stop the advance of the extreme right and to prevent her from obtaining an absolute majority in the second round of the elections. Whether in the form of a statement or through voices associated with both sides, the evening was marked by a consensus among the political forces that unity was necessary against Le Pen.
The truth is that Le Pen was the only one who declared victory on election night and, in addition to the first place of the National Union and its allies, she did so even in her own name: it was a of the names that won an election in the first round by an absolute majority in the constituency of Pas-de-Calais, the French coastal city that has been facing immigration problems for years. He too older sisterMarie-Caroline Le Pen, qualified for the second round of the legislative elections after winning the constituency where he ran, in Sarthe, with 39.3% of the votes.
The opposite path was taken by the leader of the Communist Party, Fabien Roussel, who announced that he would be removed in the first round of the legislative elections in northern France after being defeated by the National Union candidate, Guillaume Florquin. The one who won the circle in which he ran, but did not obtain elections in the first round, was Gabriel Attal, current French prime minister and the man who led the candidacy of Emmanuel Macron’s party. Go to the second round.
AND The one who will not have an easy life is Eric Ciotti, the leader of the Republicans who opened a rift within his own party by deciding to ally with the National Union in these elections (not being accompanied by part of the party), could not secure the elections in the first round and will have a second round of three in the circle where you apply. Already François Hollande, former president of France, won the constituency in Corrèze with 37.63% of the votes, but not enough to be elected in the first round. In fact, he will also be competing against two opponents, unless one of them withdraws his candidacy.
Several members of the French government were forced to withdraw their candidacies due to the election results and third places in several circles. Foreign Minister Marie Guévenoux came third in the Essonne circle and announced that she was withdrawing and would not participate in the second round due to the “risk of a victory for the National Union” and Secretary of State Sabrina Agresti. – Roubache also withdrew from the elections in Marseille.
Source: Observadora
