Watch live on Sunday (30 June) as voters go to the polls in the first round of the French parliamentary elections.
Marine Le Pen’s National Rally (RN) party increased its lead in the polls as campaigning reached its final stages in France’s snap election on Friday.
It is a pivotal and polarising vote called by president Emmanuel Macron, with his centrist government risking a potentially fatal beating at the hands of the far right.
With pollsters indicating that the far right RN could greatly increase its number of politicians in the National Assembly, the election could radically alter the trajectory of the European Union’s largest country and hamstring Mr Macron – who has been a driving force in EU decision-making – for the remainder of his second and last presidential term.
RN sat at 37 per cent, according to a survey by OpinionWay published in the newspaper Les Echos, up two percentage points on a week ago. President Macron‘s centrist bloc, Together, is predicted to recieve 20 per cent of the popular vote, down two points from the previous poll.
The survey also found the New Popular Front left-wing alliance could win 28 per cent of the vote, a level unchanged compared with a week ago.
