PARIS (AP) — French opposition parties made hasty deals Tuesday to prevent a landslide victory for Marine Le Pen’s far-right party. National rally in the second round of parliamentary elections on Sunday, when she said her party would only lead 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 early parliamentary elections on June 30, but not enough to secure an outright victory that would allow the formation of the first far-right government in France since World War II.
“We cannot accept to enter into government if we cannot act,” Le Pen said in an interview with public broadcaster France Inter. “It would be the worst betrayal of our voters.” However, “if we have 270 lawmakers, for example, we need 19 more, then we go to others and ask if they are willing to participate with us in a new majority.”
Round one brought the National Rally closer to government than ever before, but left open the possibility that voters could block the takeover on Sunday.
An unprecedented number of candidates who qualified for the second round from the left-wing alliance of the New Popular Front and the weakened centrists of President Emmanuel Macron have stepped aside to favor the candidate most likely to win against an opponent from the Rassemblement National. Several cabinet ministers were among those who dropped out of the race.
According to a tally by French newspaper Le Monde, 218 candidates who were due to compete in the second round have withdrawn. Of them, 130 were left-wing and 82 from the Macron-led centrist alliance Ensemble, it counted. Candidates had until 6 p.m. local time to withdraw.
The Interior Ministry could not immediately respond to a request to confirm these numbers.
“We have one goal today: to deny the Rassemblement National an absolute majority,” said François Ruffin of the far-left party France Unbowed, which is part of the New Popular Front alliance along with the French Greens, Socialists and Communists.
During his campaign, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal appeared at a food market where he 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.
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 . unpopular president gambled that the far right would not repeat that success, while the fate of France 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 played on that frustration and on the feeling 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.
Le Pen also spoke on Tuesday about a potential ban on the Muslim headscarfShe 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.
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Surk reported from Nice, France. Helena Alves in Paris contributed.
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