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2 months ago
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The Left Wing New Popular Front triumphed in the second round of France’s snap parliamentary elections on Sunday, with far right National Rally coming in third, according to first exit polls released after voting closed.
Per the exit preliminary results, the left wing New Popular Front (NPF) alliance has won between 170 to 190 in the 577-seat lower house, while RN has taken between 135 to 155 votes, behind President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist Ensemble bloc which looks set to take 150 to 170 seats.
According to interior ministry figures released before booths closed, the participation rate was 67.10%, which is higher than the first round of voting on June 30, and the highest level since 1997.
The fact that no party has come out with an absolute majority means France is set for days, weeks even, of political uncertainty.
Macron called the snap election on June 9 in response to hefty gains by RN in European elections, in which 373 million citizens from 27 countries belonging to the European Union bloc voted on its 720-seat European parliament.
The French turnout for that poll was less than 50% of the electorate but Macron said the result posed “a danger” to France.
The polls was one of the most decisive elections in France since WW2, pitting an anti-immigrant, law and order right wing bloc led by RN against a hastily assembled left-wing alliance consisting of the La France Insoumise, the Socialist Party, Les Écologistes, the French Communist Party, Génération.s, and Place Publique parties.
The Ensemble bloc, gathers Macron’s Renaissance as well as the Democratic Movement (MoDem), Horizons, En commun, and the Progressive Federation.
Regardless of which bloc wins the second round, Macron has vowed that he will stay in place as president until the end of this current mandate in May 2027, although it is not clear how much power he will wield without a majority in parliament.
More to follow….
