An astonishing political move has unfolded in France to thwart the far-right National Rally (RN) from seizing power in France ahead of the country’s second round of elections on Sunday in critical parliamentary runoff elections.
Over two hundred contenders from the left-wing alliance and President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist camp, both with similar visions, purposefully withdrew from the contest in a bid to stop the votes from getting split. Their objective is to prevent the RN from reaching the 289 seats needed for a majority in the 577-seat lower chamber of parliament.
Opposition leader Marine Le Pen denounced the withdrawals as a betrayal of voters’ will, decrying them as contemptuous acts of withdrawing and issuing voting instructions.
After the first round, where the anti-immigration RN and its allies led convincingly, left and centrist parties strategically withdrew candidates from seats they were unlikely to win, aiming to reshape the electoral landscape by consolidating votes against the RN.
Political analysts believe this extraordinary action could successfully block the RN’s bid for a majority government. Analyst Antoine Bristielle commented, “The main probability was an absolute majority for the National Rally, but now with all of the withdrawals, I think that’s unlikely.”
To further synchronize efforts against the far-right surge, the left-wing coalition, NFP, pledged to withdraw third-place candidates. However, though the candidates from Macron’s party dropped out with a motive to favor candidates from the left-wing NFP, many stopped short of encouraging their supporters to vote for a left-wing opponent, ruling out the idea of bringing votes in its favor.
Notably, much before candidates’ withdrawals, projections had suggested that the RN was likely to fall short of an absolute majority, winning between 230 and 280 seats in the 577-seat lower house.
This grave political situation for Le Pen’s party furthered more after National Rally leader Jordan Bardella said he would refuse to govern a minority government, where RN would require the votes of allies in order to form a government
Hence, if at all the RN falls short of an absolute majority and Bardella stays true to his word, Macron might get a shot in his arm, paving the way for his return or return of a coalition leftist government.
However, if the unthinkable for Macron happens and the RN does get an absolute majority, the anti-immigration RN will be the first far-right party to enter the French government since World War II.
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