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Louise Thomas
Editor
Watch again as voting took place across France on Sunday 7 July, in a parliamentary run-off election that would reconfigure the political landscape, with opinion polls forecasting the far-right National Rally (RN) will win the most votes but likely fall short of a majority.
Such an outcome could plunge the country into a chaotic hung parliament weeks before the Paris Olympic Games, severely denting the authority of president Emmanuel Macron.
Equally, if the nationalist, eurosceptic RN did win a majority, the pro-business, Europhile president could find himself forced into a difficult “cohabitation”.
Marine Le Pen’s RN scored historic gains to win last Sunday’s first-round vote, raising the spectre of France’s first far-right government since World War Two.
But after centrist and leftist parties joined forces over the past week in a bid to forge an anti-RN barricade, Ms Le Pen’s hopes of the RN winning an absolute majority in the 577-seat National Assembly have diminished.
Polls suggest the RN will become the dominant legislative force, but fail to reach the 289-seat majority that Ms Le Pen and her 28-year-old protege Jordan Bardella believe would allow them to claim the prime minister’s job and drag France sharply rightward.
