Image source, Getty Images
- Author, Hugh Schofield
- Role, Correspondent in Paris
The deadline for declaring candidacies for the French legislative elections expired on Tuesday, with many left-wing and centrist candidates withdrawing in an attempt to block the far-right National Rally (RN).
Parties had until 6:00 p.m. local time (5:00 p.m. GMT) to register their candidates for Sunday’s second round of parliamentary elections.
While no official list has yet been released, French media reported that between 214 and 218 third-place candidates withdrew from the race in their respective constituencies. This means that there will now be around 108 three-place candidates, instead of just over 300.
The other elections will take place in two rounds, with the exception of two constituencies where four candidates qualified.
Last Sunday’s first round saw a landslide victory for Marine Le Pen’s party, which – with its allies – won around 33% of the vote.
A broad left-wing alliance comes in second, followed by President Emmanuel Macron’s centrists in third.
But Ms Le Pen’s chances of winning an absolute majority in the 577-seat National Assembly have been scuppered by the blocking tactics of her party’s enemies.
When third-placed centrist or left-wing candidates withdraw, the anti-RN vote is concentrated on a single candidate, making victory over the RN candidate easier.
The New Popular Front (NPF), a left-wing party that brings together all parties, from centre-left social democrats to far-left anti-capitalists, has instructed all its candidates who came in third place to withdraw and let a centrist collect the anti-RN vote.
The NPF thus helped two senior pro-Macron officials – former Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne and Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin – to win in their constituencies in Normandy and the North.
Conversely, a pro-Macron candidate withdrew to help the radical left candidate François Ruffin defeat the RN candidate in Amiens (north).
The RN president, 28, and candidate for the post of Prime Minister, Jordan Bardella, denounced these arrangements as the fruit of an “alliance of dishonour” between parties which had until then been at loggerheads.
The instructions given to candidates from Macron’s centrist bloc were more ambiguous than those from the NPF.
Although Macron himself and Prime Minister Gabriel Attal have called for “not voting for the RN”, some in his camp believe that its far-left component makes the NPF just as indigestible.
Figures such as Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire and former Prime Minister Edouard Philippe – both from the centre-right – refuse to give instructions to systematically vote against the RN.
RN leaders have said they will not attempt to form a government unless they win an absolute majority in parliament in Sunday’s vote. They say they do not want to be seen to have power if in reality they cannot pass laws.
On Tuesday, however, Marine Le Pen appeared to qualify this assertion, saying that a smaller majority would be sufficient – provided that it was not too far below the threshold of 289 members.
Speaking on French radio, she said winning around 270 MPs would allow her party to open negotiations with individual MPs from other groups in the hope of persuading them to reach a deal.
“We’re going to say to them: ‘Are you ready to participate with us in a new majority? Are you ready to vote on a motion of confidence? Are you ready to vote on the budget?'” she said.
She cited as possible targets independent deputies from the right and left, as well as part of the conservative Republicans party, which won 10% of the vote on Sunday.
If the RN wins an absolute majority on Sunday, Bardella would be tasked by President Macron with forming a government – and would then begin a tense period of “cohabitation” between two political enemies.
Under the constitution of the Fifth French Republic, power would pass from Macron to the prime minister’s office because “the government determines and conducts the policy of the nation.”
However, Mr Macron would likely seek to retain powers in the areas of foreign policy and defence, which by precedent – and not by the wording of the constitution itself – have remained the preserve of the Élysée during past cohabitations.
Marine Le Pen also accused the president on Tuesday of carrying out an “administrative coup” after she heard he was preparing a number of key appointments in the police and army days before the vote.
“When you want to counter the results of an election by appointing your people to positions, and when that stops [the government] to be able to carry out the policy that the French people have asked for… I call this an administrative coup d’état,” she said.
“I hope it’s just a rumor,” she added.
