Published on 30/06/2024 – 17:42 CEST•Last update
01/07/2024 – 9:57 CEST
This article was originally published in English
No party or coalition won an absolute majority in the first round, according to data from the French Interior Ministry. Second round on July 7. Any candidate who wins more than 12.5 percent of the vote can advance to a runoff.
Il National Rally (Rn)far-right party led by Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardellawon as expected the first round of legislative electionsaccording to the definitive results provided by the French Ministry of the Interior.
Rn got 33.1 percent of the voteswith a slight drop from last week’s polls which gave the party 36 percent. Following the New Popular Front (NFP), a left-wing coalition that reached 28 percentWhile Ensable, President Emmanuel Macron’s coalition drops to 20 percent.
This represents asignificant surge for Le Pen’s party, without however reaching an absolute majority of votes. The RN absorbed part of the Gaullist republicans in this election cycle. The rest of the Republican Party obtained 6.7 percent of the vote.
Eric Ciottileader of the republican rebellion that has formed an alliance with the Rassemblement National, declared that victory “is in sight to bring Jordan Bardella at Matignon“, the seat of the French Prime Minister.**
In theory, therefore, the right, without prejudice to the dynamics of the run-offs in a week, could obtain enough support for an absolute majority of seats according to the projections: the RN alone would have 230-280 seats with the absolute majority threshold in the National Assembly at 289. But even the center with the left could do it.
Bad evening for Eric Zemmour and his Reconquête! party, which fell below 1 percent of the votes.
What happens after the first electoral round?
Next week will see a significant amount of trading, with candidates who could make electoral pacts or even withdrawwhich means that the final result may look very different.
In 2022, Macron won just over 25 percent of the votes cast in the first round, but ended up winning 42 percent of the seats, finishing in first place, but losing his majority.
In a speech delivered immediately after the polls closed, Mélenchon promised to withdraw from any constituency in which he placed third, to avoid splitting the vote and giving away more seats to Le Pen.
French National Assembly: How the 2022 Elections Went
In the 2022 elections EnsemblePresident Macron’s coalition, had obtained the largest number of seats but lost the absolute majority, set at 289 seats. It was followed by Nupes, the left-wing coalition led by Jean-Luc Mélenchon and the National Gathering of Marine Le Pen with 18.7 percent of the preferences.
