The President of France, Emmanuel Macron, was surprised to dissolve the parliament three weeks ago. The first round of voting will take place on Sunday. The most important questions and answers.
Supporters of the national right-wing Rassemblement celebrate the results of the first round of voting on Sunday evening.
The latest developments
- The nationalist Rassemblement (RN) won the first round of elections in France. As the French Ministry of the Interior announced early Monday morning (July 1), Marine Le Pen’s party received 29.3 percent of the vote. Together with the ally Union de l’extrême droite (UXD), the right-wing coalition has 33.2 percent. The left-wing coalition New Front populaire follows in second place with around 28 percent. The group around the Renaissance party gets about 20 percent control and is in third place. France recorded a historically high voter turnout of 66.71 percent. That’s almost 20 percentage points more than in the regular parliamentary election two years ago.
- In Paris and many other cities on Sunday evening (June 30), thousands of people took to the streets and demonstrated against Marine Le Pen’s party and the shift to the right in France. In the capital, demonstrators gathered on the Place de la République following a call from the new left-wing coalition. Leading left-wing politicians also joined the protest there. Protest rallies and marches were also held in Nantes, Dijon, Lille and Marseille. According to media reports, there were clashes between demonstrators and the police in France’s third largest city, Lyon.
- President Emmanuel Macron called for unity against the right-wing nationalists of the Rassemblement in the second round of the parliamentary elections. The time had come for a large, clear democratic and republican merger against Marine Le Pen’s party, it was said directly after the publication of the first projections from the Elysée Palace.
- Marine Le Pen has been directly elected to parliament again in her constituency of Hénin-Beaumont. The National Rally destroyed President Macron’s bloc, Le Pen said. She also asked voters to help the RN get a clear majority in the second round of voting next Sunday. The leader of the party, Jordan Bardella said in the evening that he would accept the office of prime minister only if the RN achieved at least 289 seats.
- Jean-Luc Mélenchon, leader of the left-wing party La France insoumise, speaks of a clear victory for the president’s camp. He sees the only major opponent of his Nouveau Front populaire alliance for the second round in the right-wing nationalist Rassemblement. Mélenchon said his party was willing to withdraw candidates in constituencies where it finished third in the first round. The main thing is to prevent the RN from winning.
- The controversial leader of the conservative Les Républicains party, Éric Ciotti, called on all conservatives to join the ranks of the nationalist Rassemblement (RN). “The victory is visible tonight,” said Ciotti after the strong performance of the RN and Républicains candidates, who together with Ciotti decided to support the RN.
The backgrounds
The mood in France is nervous. Three weeks ago, President Emmanuel Macron dissolved parliament and ordered new elections. Macron was reacting to his party’s landslide victory in the European elections at the beginning of June. The first round of voting takes place on Sunday, the second in a week.
Macron’s decision woke up many French people. Previously, more than two million voters received a power of attorney so that someone could represent them when they voted because they were unable to vote. That’s five times more than the last election in 2022 – and shows a high voter turnout.
How are the elections going?
The National Assembly is decided by majority vote. This means that the candidates with the most votes in the respective constituencies will go to the second round of the run-off, and the person with the most votes will win the seat.
Three major political blocs were created for the elections. The conservative Républicains are divided on the question of the coalition government with the RN. About 60 of the party’s candidates, including the president, entered into an alliance with the RN. The rest tend towards the middle.
But the conservatives will not decide the outcome of the election: the parties are running in three large blocs. On the left is the populaire New Front, which unites the four main left-wing parties. Renaissance Emmanuel Macron, sympathizers and the homeless conservatives are located in the middle. On the right is the Rassemblement National, supported by the conservatives who are in disarray.
How important are alliances in the second round?
The National Assembly is decided by majority vote. Only people who get more than half of the votes can enter the parliament directly. This was only the case in 76 constituencies. On July 7, the candidates with the most votes in the remaining 500 constituencies will enter the run-off election. The person most elected enters parliament.
Whether the RN wins a majority of seats also depends on how strong the other parties make compromises and coalitions. In many constituencies there are run-off elections with three candidates remaining. Several representatives of the center left have announced that they will withdraw candidates, especially when they came third in the first round. In doing so, they want to win as many votes as possible against the RN, regardless of party.
What caused the new elections?
It is clear that the right-wing national Rassemblement National (RN) won the European elections on June 9 in France. The party received almost 32 percent of the votes cast, more than twice as much as Macron’s Renaissance party. For Macron, who stands for himself as a great European politician, the defeat was a bitter blow.
Shortly after the publication of the first projections, the French President gave a speech to his people. He has heard the voters’ message and will not leave it unanswered. Parliament will be dissolved and there should be new elections at the end of the month. He has confidence in the ability of the French people to make the right decision for themselves and for future generations.
No one in France expected such a step, probably not even those who repeatedly called for the dissolution of the National Assembly in the last two years. After the initial shock, there was movement in the party landscape. The three blocks took less than four days to form.
Why did Macron decide to take this step?
Until the day of the European elections, the President insisted that European elections had only European consequences. When he explained himself to the press three days later, he used the situation in parliament as an argument for his radical step. Since the last parliamentary election, governing has become difficult for Macron as his party did not have a clear majority in the National Assembly.
The government repeatedly faced votes of no confidence, but these were never successful. Macron said he wanted to use the new elections to prevent a vote of no confidence to come in the budget debate in the fall. France needs political clarity, the president said.
Why is the right so successful in France?
In recent years, Marine Le Pen has tried to move her party more to the center. His leading candidate, Jordan Bardella, is popular among young voters.
When he was elected president, Macron promised that there would be no reasons to vote for the right-wing national parties when he was in charge. But the group around former RN party leader Marine Le Pen is getting stronger. There is great dissatisfaction with the president among many French voters. According to Survey from Po University of Sciences Since February, one in three people in France do not trust politics. Almost 70 percent doubt that basic democracy works in France.
Le Pen combats public distrust by positioning herself as the voice of the anti-establishment. In recent years, she has also opened up her party thematically: she tried to position herself as a supporter of the yellow vests (she failed) and fought from the front against the pension reform that Macron pushed through.
Le Pen succeeded in making her party electable well into the middle class. RN politicians trying to make their views appear less radical.
What will happen to Macron if his party loses the elections?
Since the president is directly elected in France, the outcome of the election does not affect Macron’s position. He will be in office until 2027 and has so far ruled out an early resignation. However, there is a high probability that he will have to work with a government leader from another party in the future.
In France it has often been the case that the president’s party is the strongest force in parliament and therefore provides the prime minister. A so-called cohabitation, ie a prime minister and a president from different parties, existed only three times in the Fifth Republic.
The Prime Minister decides political matters on a day-to-day basis. If a party other than Renaissance wins a majority in parliament, Macron would only be able to set the pace in foreign policy and defense.