There are strong leads in the first round of the elections

The National Rally: How France won’t win the First Two-Dimensional Premilection Elections in the Far Right

“This is a revenge of the people against the elites, in the media and politics,” he said. “I am of those who have voted for everyone. They lied to us about immigration being a chance for the country.

At the election celebration in Le Pen’s stronghold of Henin-Beaumont, 41-year-old Edouard Guillebot said the far right’s success had been a long time coming.

The National Rally has questioned the right to citizenship for people born in France, and it wants to curtail the rights of French citizens with dual nationality. Critics think that undermines democratic ideals in France.

Voter interest for the first round of legislative elections in France had fallen dramatically over the past 30 years, and the high turnout reversed that. The quick campaign galvanized the electorate and caused so many to vote, especially as many are about to start their summer vacations. Many voters saw an opportunity to impose a government on Macron, to reprimand his presidency and force a change in course.

Already on Sunday night, the far-right’s opponents were strategizing how to concentrate votes against the National Rally in round two, planning in some districts to pull their candidates out to increase the chances of another candidate beating a far-right rival.

It might fall short, but no single bloc will be given a clear majority, according to projected polling agencies. The two-round voting system makes predictions difficult.

Some polling agency projections indicated that in a best-case scenario for the far right, the National Rally and its allies could collectively clear the bar of 289 seats needed for a secure majority in the 577-seat National Assembly.

The National rally’s pledges to give voters spending power and roll back of the pension reforms could scare off European financial markets since they don’t make clear how it would pay for the pledges.

But it didn’t work out that way. With French polling agencies projecting that the National Rally and its allies got about one-third of the national vote on Sunday, Macron’s prime minister warned that France could end up with its first far-right government since World War II if voters don’t come together to thwart that scenario in round two next Sunday.

The far-right National Rally jumped into a strong lead in the first round of France’s legislative election on Sunday, as polling agencies projected that the party could cobble together a government in the second round.

The National Rally is not yet there. With a week of campaigning to go before the decisive final vote next Sunday, the outcome of the election is not certain.

After the National Rally, France became a snap election: Prime Minister Jordan Bardella and the rebranding of the French National Front

Securing a parliamentary majority would enable National Rally leader Marine Le Pen to install her 28-year-old protege, Jordan Bardella, as prime minister and would crown her yearslong rebranding effort to make her party less repellent to mainstream voters. She inherited the party, then called the National Front, from her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, who has multiple convictions for racist and antisemitic hate speech.

The French polling agencies think that the centrist parties will be third in the first ballot, behind the National Rally and a new left-wing coalition of parties.

President Macron shocked much of France and the world by dissolving parliament and calling what’s known as a snap election after the National Rally came first in June 9 elections for France’s seats in European Parliament. He wanted to let the French know that they couldn’t say no to everything.

Bardella pledged to be the prime minister for all the people of France and respectful of opposition after the first round of voting.

There is still a chance that the National Assembly won’t have a majority. And Macron could then call for another election next year.

It isn’t just the National Rally that beat Macron. The second-place left-wing New Popular Front has also worried some voters. The National Rally, which has been criticized for its support for Zionism, is included in the same group of parties as the France Unbowed party led by firebrand former journalist Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who has criticized Israel over the war in Gaza.

The high turnout made the election more complicated. There are more than 300 races this election that involve three, even four candidates, because of how the rules are decided for the second round.

That makes it possible for parties that placed second and third in round one — like that left-wing coalition and Macron’s own Ensemble alliance — to strike deals with each other, have one candidate step aside and call on their voters to cast a ballot for the other allied party.

“Our aim is to make the National Rally lose its absolute majority in the 2nd round, from dominating the National Assembly to governing the country with a disastrous project,” the Prime Minister said.

Meanwhile, other countries are watching events in France — many with alarm, though some who support nationalist populists are encouraged by the result.

The Belgian Le Soir newspaper criticizes the president for abandoning the ballot box to appease the far right, instead of protecting his country against them. The magazine asked, “Why is he giving the country to the far right?”

In Ukraine, the most-read article in Ukrainskaya Pravda newspaper was a news item on the election, which ends on a note ofconcern: “The National Rally’s position on the Russian-Ukrainian war remains unknown. While the party currently claims it will assist Ukraine in defending itself against Russian forces, it has also established red lines, such as not giving Ukraine long-range weaponry.”