French voters head to polls for crucial second round of snap parliamentary election

Voters are heading to the polls across France to vote in the second round of a snap election called by President Emmanuel Macron, who risks losing swaths of his centrist allies in parliament and being forced to see out the remaining three years of his presidential term in an awkward partnership with the far right.

After taking the lead in the first round of voting last Sunday, the far-right National Rally (RN) – led by the 28-year-old Jordan Bardella under the watchful eye of party doyenne Marine Le Pen – is closer to power than ever before.

The RN, whose once-taboo brand of anti-immigrant politics has been given a fresh and more acceptable face by Bardella, won 33% of the popular vote in the first round. The newly-formed left-wing coalition, the New Popular Front (NFP), came second with 28%, while Macron’s Ensemble alliance trailed in a distant third with 21%.

But the prospect of a far-right government – which would be France’s first since the collaborationist Vichy regime during World War II – has spurred Ensemble and the NFP into action. After a week of political bargaining, hundreds of candidates stood down in particular seats to try to deny the RN an absolute majority.

Voting began at 8 a.m. local time (2 a.m. ET), as France began the process of electing the 577 members of its National Assembly, in which 289 seats are needed for a party to hold an absolute majority. In the outgoing parliament, Macron’s alliance had only 250 seats, and so needed support from other parties to pass laws.

Only those who win more than 12.5% of the votes of registered votes in the first round can stand in the second, meaning it is often fought between two candidate. But this time a record number of seats – more than 300 – produced a three-way run-off, in a measure of France’s polarization. In an attempt not to split the anti-far right vote, more than 200 candidates from Macron’s alliance and the NFP agreed to stand down in the second round. (CNN)

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