PARIS (AP) — French opposition parties made last-minute deals Tuesday to prevent a landslide victory for the French president. Marine Le-Penthe far right National rally in the second round of parliamentary elections on Sunday, when she said her party would only take over the government if it won an absolute majority – or close to it.
The National Rally, under party chairman Jordan Bardellawon the most votes in the first round of the surprise parliamentary elections on June 30, but not enough to claim overall victory.
“We cannot accept to enter into government if we cannot act,” Le Pen said in an interview with public broadcaster France Inter on Tuesday. “It would be the worst betrayal of our voters.”
However, Le Pen said that if her party was short even a few lawmakers, “we would try to get them.”
“If we have 270 lawmakers, for example, we need 19 more, we go to others and ask them if they are willing to join us in a new majority,” Le Pen said. “Then, if we have a majority, we will do what the voters elected us to do.”
First round on Sunday brought the Rassemblement National closer to government than ever before, but also left open the possibility that voters could still block the takeover in the second and final round on July 7.
Le Pen’s party and her opponents in the left-wing alliance of the New Popular Front, as well as President Emmanuel MacronThe weakened centrists are all trying to deny the far-right party an absolute majority by mobilising their supporters in a high-risk campaign this week.
The Rassemblement National and its allies could secure a working majority in parliament in the final round on Sunday. Or they could fall short, stymied at the final hurdle by opponents still hoping to prevent the formation of France’s first far-right government since World War II.
For this reason, an exceptionally large number of left-wing and centrist candidates who qualified for the second round have withdrawn, giving preference to the candidate with the greatest chance of winning against an opponent from the Rassemblement National.
According to a count by the French newspaper Le Monde, nearly 200 candidates have withdrawn from Sunday’s second round.
Of these, 124 were left-wing and 69 came from the Macron-led centrist alliance Ensemble, Le Monde counted. Candidates have until 6pm local time to withdraw their names from their local constituency.
“We have one goal today (and that) to deny the Rassemblement National an absolute majority,” said François Ruffin of the far-left party France Unbowed, which is part of the new Front National alliance along with French Greens, Socialists and Communists.
During his campaign, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal appeared at a food market where he spoke to fruit and vegetable vendors, posed for a few selfies and toasted “victory.”
“I must prevent the Rassemblement National from obtaining an absolute majority in the National Assembly, because that would be – and I say this from the bottom of my heart – terrible for the country and the French,” Attal said.
Le Pen also spoke about a possible ban on the Islamic headscarf: a long-cherished theme within her party.
Le Pen said she still supports a ban on headscarves in public, but that the official decision justifies “presidential authority.”
“There are a number of issues regarding Islamic ideologies and the headscarf is just one of them,” she said.
Macron dissolved the National Assembly and called early elections on June 9, after a painful defeat by the Rassemblement National in France. vote for the European ParliamentThe . very unpopular and weakened president gambled that the far right would not repeat that success, as the fate of the country itself was at stake.
But Macron’s plan backfired. He is now accused, even by members of his own camp, of opening a door for the National Rally by calling voters back to the polls, especially when so many are angry about inflation, the cost of living, immigration and at Macron himself.
The far right has played on voter frustration over inflation and low incomes, and the sense that many French families are being left behind by globalisation. The Pens party campaigned on a platform that promised to increase consumer spending power, reduce immigration and take a tougher line on European Union rules.
Opponents of Rassemblement National fear for civil liberties if the party, which has a history of racism, xenophobia, anti-Semitism and hostility toward French Muslims, takes power. The party plans to expand police powers and curtail the rights of French dual nationals to work in some defense, security and nuclear industry jobs.
Macron himself warned that the far right could put France in a difficult position. path to civil war.
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