A crushing blow for Emmanuel Macron’s centrist alliance
A big turnout for Le Pen’s hard right makes clear the president’s gamble backfired spectacularly
A DRAMATIC NEW era began in France on June 30th when Marine Le Pen’s hard-right party took a massive lead in first-round voting for the lower house of parliament. Her National Rally (RN) has never been so close to governing France. Official results showed that the RN had secured 33.2% of the vote. IPSOS, a pollster, estimated that, as France now heads to a final run-off vote on July 7th, this puts it on course to win 230-280 seats in the 577-seat National Assembly, up from 88, and become easily the biggest group in parliament. A result at the upper end of that range would put the RN in touching distance of an overall majority of 289.
Explore more
More from Europe
The Olympics are teaching the French to cheer again
France’s politics is a mess, but the games are glorious
Humiliated by Azerbaijan, Armenia tacks towards the West
Courting the EU and America without alienating Russia is a difficult trick
Vienna’s social housing, lauded by progressives, pushes out the poor
The city’s most hard-up rely on the private sector
Will a new “pact” of ten laws help Europe ease its migrant woes?
It will require an extraordinary number of institutions to work together
Amid the bombs, Ukrainians rediscover the beach
Odessa gives itself permission to tan again
Who was behind the arson attacks on railways before the Olympics?
With thousands stranded, suspicion falls on Russia or Iran