In France.
Preliminary projections suggest the far-right National Rally Party clinched victory in the first round of voting for the French parliament well ahead of President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist Renaissance Party and its allies.
Lee Eun-jin reports.
On Sunday, France’s far-right National Rally party celebrated an historic win in the first round of the snap elections called by French president Emmanuel Macron.
After a low turnout for European elections three weeks ago, the first round of voting this weekend saw an unusually high turnout, close to 60 percent, the highest in three decades.
While the final results will depend on the second round of voting set to take place next Sunday, projections show that Marine Le Pen’s National Rally would win the most seats in the 577-seat National Assembly.
According to pollsters, the far-right National Rally party took over 33 percent of the first-round vote, ahead of the left wing New Popular Front taking over 28 percent, and Macron’s Ensemble alliance in third with around 21 percent.
The figures show that the National Rally party would still be short of the 289 seats required to win an absolute majority in parliament, but it could leave President Macron to work with a prime minister from an opposition party for his remaining three years in office.
Victory for the far-right party would mean that President Macron would be naming the National Rally’s 28-year-old party president, Jordan Bardella, as prime minister, which would lead to a power-sharing system called “cohabitation.” This would not only weaken Macron’s power at home, but also on the global stage.
Leaving the next week for parties to form last minute alliances, the second round of elections is even more crucial for all parties.
On Sunday evening, French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal said that the National Assembly was at risk of being dominated by the far right.
He emphasized that for the second round of voting next weekend, that not a single vote must go to the National Rally.
“So the situation is clear. The challenge of this second round is to deprive the extreme right of an absolute majority, by building an assembly where we will carry enough weight to build majorities based on projects and ideas between republican forces.”
Experts say results in three party runoff races are extremely difficult to predict,
adding that rather than victory for the far-right, a more likely outcome would be a hung parliament with no coalition majority, which would leave the French government in gridlock.
Lee Eunjin, Arirang News.
Source : Arirang TV, https://www.arirang.com/news/view?id=272708
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