Opponents of the French anti-immigration National Rally party last night made their final attempts to prevent it from coming to power.
The far-right party, known as RN, led by Marine Le Pen, was the clear winner of the first round of parliamentary elections on Sunday, taking a third of all votes in the 577 electoral districts.
But there will be a second round for candidates who obtained more than 12.5 percent and less than 50 percent in the first round.
And RN opponents – including President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist Juntos (Ensemble) coalition and the left-wing New Popular Front alliance – faced a deadline yesterday to tactically withdraw candidates in constituencies where uniting anti-right voters could deny the RN victory.
In 218 electoral districts, the third-placed candidate withdrew last night, giving rise to multiple local coalitions of anti-right voters.
Marine Le Pen’s far-right RN party won with 33 percent of the vote in the first round
Candidates are now withdrawing in an attempt to unseat the far right after Macron’s slow start
The future Prime Minister of the RN, Jordan Bardella, last night described the agreements as a “disgraceful alliance” that shames the French Republic.
In the first round, the New Popular Front came in second with 28.5 percent, and embarrassed Macron’s party in third place with 22 percent.
Taken together, their support clearly outstrips that of the RN, and those fearing extremism may be galvanised by yesterday’s news that an RN candidate was being withdrawn after being photographed posing in a Nazi military cap.
The party has long sought to distance itself from suggestions that it includes Nazi sympathisers.
A long shadow has been cast by former leader Jean-Marie Le Pen, father of current leader Marine, who infamously described Hitler’s Jewish Holocaust as a “detail” of history.
But that didn’t stop RN candidate Ludivine Daoudi, 47, who won 20 percent of the vote in the first round in her Normandy constituency, smiling as she sported a World War II-era Luftwaffe officer’s cap complete with a swastika.
RN spokesman Philippe Chapron admitted that the image was “in bad taste”. He said that Ms Daoudi “had withdrawn her candidacy today”.
Mr Chapron continued: “She does not deny it: this photo was taken at an arms sale several years ago.”
Ms Daoudi was in Caen in northern France, a country fiercely defended by the Nazi occupiers after the D-Day landings in 1944. Marine Le Pen, a repeated French presidential candidate, has been keen to “detoxify” her party to make it more electable.
And if he manages to control 289 seats after Sunday’s run-off, perhaps with the help of cooperation with a handful of independents, Mr Macron will have no choice but to appoint Ms Le Pen’s young parliamentary protégé, Mr Bardella, as prime minister.
Projections have suggested the RN could win between 260 and 310 seats, the NPF between 115 and 145 seats and Together between 90 and 120.
Any RN government would have to share power with President Macron, who is head of state until 2027.
Mr Bardella has already pledged to focus on an anti-immigrant agenda, cancelling the automatic right to French citizenship for anyone born in France to foreign parents.
He has also said he will crack down on dual nationals holding high-security jobs in France, such as managing nuclear power plants.
Protesters take part in an anti-RN demonstration following the announcement of the results of the first round of parliamentary elections at the Place de la Republique, Paris, on June 30.
Tensions rise as demonstrators gather at the Place de la Republique to protest against the growing right-wing movement in Paris, France, June 30, 2024.
Ms Le Pen yesterday accused President Macron of planning an “administrative coup” by preparing a series of key appointments in the police and army just days before Sunday’s crucial vote.
She said: “When you want to counteract the results of an election by nominating your own people for jobs, and when that prevents the government from carrying out policies that the French people have asked for, I call that an administrative coup.”
Mr Macron has dissolved the National Assembly and called early elections for 9 June, following the defeat of the National Rally in France’s European Parliament.
Now he is accused, even by members of his own faction, of having rolled out the red carpet for the National Rally, with voters unhappy with inflation, immigration and Macron himself.
The possible imminence of a far-right parliament has overshadowed preparations for the Olympic Games taking place in Paris in a few weeks.
