Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally party led the first round of France’s parliamentary elections on Sunday, taking it closer to taking power than ever before.
The RN bloc ratcheted up 33.15% of the vote after a high turnout,,while the left-wing New Popular Front (NFP) coalition came second with 27.99%.
President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist Ensemble alliance finished a poor third with 20.76%, according to final results published by the interior ministry on Monday.
Le Pen’s party appears on track to win the most seats in the National Assembly, but could fail to muster the 289 seats required for an absolute majority, meaning France may be heading for a hung parliament and more political uncertainty.
A total of 76 candidates were elected to France’s parliament in the first round of the vote, of which 39 represented RN and its allies, 32 were from NFP, and just two from Macron’s alliance, according to the results published on Monday.
President Macron called the election after his party was battered by the RN in European Parliament elections on June 9. It could leave him to see out the remaining three years of his presidential term in an awkward partnership with a prime minister from an opposition party.
The RN election party in the northern town of Henin Beaumont erupted in celebration as the results were announced – but Marine Le Pen was quick to stress that next Sunday’s vote will be key.
“Democracy has spoken, and the French people have placed the National Rally and its allies in first place – and has practically erased the Macronist bloc,” she told a crowd, adding: “Nothing has been won – and the second round will be decisive.”
In a speech at the RN’s headquarters in Paris, Jordan Bardella, the party’s 28-year-old leader, echoed Le Pen’s message.
“The vote taking place next Sunday is one of the most decisive in the entire history of the Fifth Republic,” Bardella said.
Following news of the results Sunday night, anti-far right protests broke out in Paris and Lyon, with some 5,500 people gathering in the capital’s Place de la Republique.\
