France on Monday kicked off two weeks of frenetic election campaigning for snap polls called by President Emmanuel Macron to combat the far right after it made big gains in the recent European vote.
Candidates had until Sunday evening to register for the 577 seats in the National Assembly that will be contested in the first round of parliamentary elections on 30 June, with the decisive second round on 7 July.
The centrist alliance led by Macron, who called the snap polls some three years early after the far right National Rally (RN) trounced his party in EU parliamentary elections on 9 June, now has just under two weeks of campaigning to close the gap.
Early polls put the RN out in front on more than 30 percent, with the presidential group in third place, behind the new left-wing Popular Front alliance on 25 percent.
The outcome of the election remains far from clear, but the prospect of RN leading the government and its leader Jordan Bardella, 28, as prime minister, cannot be ruled out.
Polls suggest RN could win up to 265 seats – short of an absolute majority – but which would lead to a hung parliament followed by weeks of complex coalition-building.
Football star Kylian Mbappe, representing France at the Euro 2024 tournament in Germany, said on Sunday that he was "against extremes and divisive ideas" and urged young people to vote at a "crucial moment" in French history.
Pressure on all parties
The short time frame for campaigning is putting pressure on all the parties.
The RN has yet to publish its full manifesto, but a one-page candidates’ leaflet outlines priorities as cost of living, immigration and security. The anti-immigration party has promised to cut VAT on electricity, gas and oil, drastically reduce legal and illegal immigration and privatise public radio and television.
A left-wing alliance, the New Popular Front, has brought together Socialists, Greens, Communists and hard-leftists from France Unbowed (LFI). It has promised to roll back Macron’s contested pension reform bringing the legal age of retirement back down from 64, reintroduce a wealth tax to massively reinvest in public services, and increase the minimum wage.
The alliance faced its first crisis over the weekend after some prominent LFI MPs discovered they were not on the final list, prompting accusations of a "purge".
On the right, the decision of Eric Ciotti, leader of the Republicans (LR), to seek an election pact with the RN provoked fury inside the party and a move by its leadership to dismiss him. A Paris court blocked that decision on Friday.
They have now put up a Republicans candidate against Ciotti in his own constituency.
Former right-wing president Nicolas Sarkozy told the Journal du Dimanche newspaper that Ciotti should have consulted the party leadership over the coalition and put it to a members' vote.
He also questioned the wisdom of backing Bardella as premier. Bardella has "never been in charge of anything", said Sarkozy. "Can you lead France when you are so young and inexperienced?"
Huge stakes for Macron
Macron is due to return to the domestic campaign fray from engagements abroad at the G7 summit in Italy and the Ukraine peace conference in Switzerland.
He has been advised by colleagues within his Renaissance ruling party to let the far more popular Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, 35, take the lead in the campaign.
Attal said on Monday that the presidential camp would not be fielding candidates in around 60 constituencies, including Corrèze where former Socialist president François Hollande is running. It will back other candidates from the right or left as a way of being "constructive", Attal told RTL radio.
The stakes are huge for Macron and he risks becoming a lame-duck president until his term expires in 2027. Whatever the results of the polls, he has ruled out stepping down.
