French President Emmanuel Macron’s Ensemble coalition is running third after the first round of the French parliamentary elections.
In anticipation of the decisive second round, Macron called on the people to unite against the election leader - the right-wing National Rally party.
The vote counting took place amid rallies held by the left in several French cities.
TASS has gathered the essential details on the voting results.
Election results
The right-wing National Rally party and allied forces lead after the first round of the French parliamentary elections with 33.15% of the vote. The left-wing New Popular Front alliance came in second with 27.99% of the vote. The presidential Ensemble coalition scored 20.04%, according to final figures released by the republic's interior ministry.
According to the Elabe sociological agency, the National Rally could win from 260 to 310 seats in the National Assembly (France's lower house of parliament) after the second round, the New Popular Front - from 115 to 145 seats, while Ensemble - from 90 to 120 seats.
The turnout totaled 66.71%. According to the Le Parisien newspaper, this is the highest figure since 2002. In the first round of the previous election in 2022, the turnout for the same period was 39.42%.
President Emmanuel Macron believes that the high turnout in the first round "shows the importance of this vote for all our compatriots and the desire to clarify the political situation."
Macron decided to dissolve the National Assembly on June 9 amid the defeat of his supporters in the European Parliament elections. The opposition right-wing National Rally party received more than 31% of the vote, while the president's party came in second with 14.6%. The last time the lower house of parliament was dissolved was by President Jacques Chirac in 1997.
Second round
So far, none of the parties has received an absolute majority of votes. The second round of elections, which will be held on July 7, will decide things.
Analysts do not rule out some kind of deal being made between the presidential coalition and the left-wing New Popular Front to prevent the election of candidates from the National Rally party.
Macron, after announcing the preliminary results of the first round of parliamentary elections, called for "democratic unity" in the second round against the National Rally of Jordan Bardella and Marine Le Pen.
French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal has issued a statement that the Ensemble presidential coalition will withdraw about 60 candidates from the race in the second round of parliamentary elections to prevent the opposition party from winning.
Jean-Luc Melenchon, the founder of La France Insoumise, said that candidates from the left-wing party would be ready to withdraw from voting in the second round of parliamentary elections if it was necessary to prevent the victory of the right-wing National Rally party. He emphasized that he was only referring to constituencies where their party did not claim victory, while in other cases he expects the French to help secure a majority for the left-wing New Popular Front coalition of parties in the second round. According to him, in most districts, the winners were evenly distributed between candidates from the left and the National Rally party.
Le Pen MP again
The head of the parliamentary faction of the National Rally party, Marine Le Pen, has been re-elected as a member of the National Assembly following the results of voting in the Henin-Beaumont constituency where she was running.
Le Pen urged supporters to actively participate in the second round, noting that an "absolute majority" was needed "so that in just eight days Jordan Bardella could be appointed prime minister by French President Emmanuel Macron's decree."
The leader of the National Rally party, Jordan Bardella, confirmed his determination to head the republic's cabinet. He assured that he was "ready for political coexistence with the president of the republic and will respect the constitution and the powers of the head of state," declaring his intention to strictly implement the country's policies.
Marine Le Pen noted earlier that if Bardella became prime minister, he would not allow French troops to be sent to Ukraine. In her opinion, the "title of supreme commander-in-chief," which the French president is vested with, "is honorable" because the treasury is managed by the prime minister.
Post-vote rallies
Thousands of supporters of the New Popular Front coalition staged a rally at the Place de la Republique in Paris in support of their candidates after the first round of early parliamentary elections.
In addition to Paris, left-wing rallies opposing the potential victory of the right-wing National Rally in the second round took place in a number of other major cities of the country, including Lille, Nantes, and Lyon. According to the Le Figaro newspaper, rallies in Nantes and Lyon turned into clashes with the police, who used tear gas to disperse the crowd.
