An alliance of left-wing parties appeared to win the most seats in France’s parliamentary elections, exit polls showed Sunday, in a surprise defeat for the National Rally party that had sought to form the country’s first far-right government since World War II.
French voters also appeared to punish President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist party in the midst of the unexpected results.
Exit polls across the country projected that the New Popular Front, a leftist bloc led by Jean-Luc Mélenchon, won up to 192 seats in France’s 577-seat National Assembly, followed by up to 170 seats for Macron’s centrist bloc, according to the poll, carried out by Ipsos Talan. National Rally came third, securing as many as 152 seats.
Official results were due later Sunday night.
The parliamentary vote is taking place against the backdrop of deep anxiety in France over immigration and inflation-hit household budgets. The election has also cast a shadow over the Paris Olympic Games, which kick off in less than three weeks. The election was called by Macron after his party performed poorly in European Unions elections last month.
Prep for the polls: See who is running for president and compare where they stand on key issues in our Voter Guide
Pooping in Olympic river?Not even the 2024 Paris games can bring divided France together
“This vote is about putting France back on the right track,” said Jonathan Rodrigues, 29, a butcher from Seine-et-Marne, southeast of Paris, who supports the National Rally party, which is jointly led by Marine Le Pen and her 28-year-old protégé Jordan Bardella. Rodrigues said Macron’s government has been a “total farce.”
The National Rally party scored historic gains in a first-round vote a week ago, which raised the specter of France’s first far-right government since World War II. The party’s origins trace back to France’s pro-Nazi Vichy government. However, if the exit polls are accurate, voters in France threw their support behind the New Popular Front on Sunday to prevent France from having a far-right government.
Le Pen has long argued that France has been held back by EU policies on everything from farming to border security. She’s claimed NATO has been a destabilizing alliance that has antagonized Russia. She’s repeatedly expressed admiration for Russian President Vladimir Putin and endorsed former President Donald Trump ahead of his 2016 election. French media have spent years investigating Le Pen’s financial links to Moscow, claims she strenuously denies.
France decides:Why is the far-right so popular?
Sunday’s outcome could mean the election ends in deadlock, a so-called hung Parliament − a chaotic scenario where the New Popular Front is the dominant legislative force in the National Assembly but unable to pass laws without forming ad-hoc coalitions with other parties.
France splits its political executive role between president and prime minister. The former traditionally oversees foreign policy and defense; the latter has a more domestic portfolio covering issues such as education, social affairs and immigration. The line between the two is sometimes blurred.
Macron’s seven-year political experiment with pro-business policies aimed at boosting France’s economy and reforming its bloated welfare state will be dented − though his role as president is not formally in jeopardy. The 46-year-old former banker and management consultant, known internationally in recent years for his non-stop efforts to garner diplomatic attention for Ukraine since Russia’s invasion, has ruled out resigning. His term does not expire before 2027, when Le Pen would become eligible for the presidency.
Raising the retirement age, solidarity with Israel
In France, Macron has angered many for his attempts to reform the nation’s public services and welfare policies, including its retirement age. He also drawn ire from left-wing voters critical of him for pushing through legislation with measures aimed at reforming residency and citizenship tests that won the approval of the far right. He has expressed “unreserved solidarity” with Israel over its war with Hamas in Gaza and called for ceasefires, positions that have enraged Muslims and Jews alike in a country where both those groups have high populations.
They see him as “elitist, arrogant” and out of touch with the France’s lower and middle classes, said Jean-Yves Camus, an expert on far-right politics at the Paris-based French Institute for International and Strategic Affairs,
Camus said that many far-right voters in France claim that they see in Le Pen and Bardella politicians “who speak common sense” on issues from the economy to immigration. But he believes that they often fail to take into account that “politics in a country like France, which is so divided, is really difficult.”
“What is common sense when it comes to immigration?” he said.
“You can’t just put borders up or a fence up and say, ‘we’re not allowing any more immigrants.'”