The first round of parliamentary elections is complete in France as three major political blocs compete.
President Emmanuel Macron asked for a snap poll in response to his party's dismal showing in the EU elections. However, it doesn’t seem to have had the desired effect, and his centrist Ensemble party looks certain to lose a sizable number of seats.
A party with an absolute majority would be able to name a government and prime minister, even if Mr Macron said he would not step down as president.
With 18.7 per cent of the vote, Marine Le Pen finished third in the 2022 elections. She will be attempting to win the necessary 289 seats to form the first far-right administration in France since the Nazi occupation.
If this is the case, there may be a time when leaders of opposing parties govern together. This was the case with conservative President Jacques Chirac and socialist Prime Minister Lionel Jospin from 1997 to 2002.
Who is ahead in the French election first round?
According to an Ipsos Talan forecasting, National Rally, the far-right party led by Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella, swept to victory in the first round of legislative elections on Sunday (June 30).
With its popularity more than doubling since 2022, the party has won a first-round legislative election for the first time.
What was the vote count?
The estimated poll shows that the National Rally received 33.2 per cent of the total votes cast, which is a little less than the opinion surveys from last week that had the party and its allies at 36 per cent.
It might not be sufficient to gain a majority in the lower house of parliament in France. According to Ipsos, Ms Le Pen and her conservative partners could gain between 230 and 280 seats, falling short of the 289 absolute majority needed.
Mr Macron's Ensemble alliance received 21 per cent of the vote, which is less than where he stood at the same point in the 2022 legislative elections but better than his 14.6 per cent gain in the most recent EU elections.
Meanwhile, left-wing parties had a comparatively good performance.
The projection stated that the New Popular Front, an alliance consisting of the Socialist Party, Greens, and Jean-Luc Mélenchon's France Unbowed, secured 28.1 per cent of the vote.
This represents a marginal increase from the 25.7 per cent that NUPES, the corresponding coalition, secured in 2022. The coalition was created upon the calling of elections.These figures suggest that Mr Macron may receive only 70–100 seats, while the New Popular Front would hold 125–165 seats in a left-wing bloc led by Mélenchon's party, according to Ipsos.Right-wing firebrand Eric Zemmour is bracing for a poor outcome as the far-right vote consolidates and his Reconquest party drops to less than one per cent of the vote. These votes are probably going to his competitor, Ms Le Pen.
The centre-right Les Republicains party, which has been split over whether to support Ms Le Pen internally, remained largely stable at little over 10 per cent.
How does the French election system work?
The government of France is semi-presidential. Since 1965, the president has been chosen by universal direct suffrage. One method of holding legislative elections is direct universal suffrage.Although the president appoints the prime minister, they typically come from a political party that holds the majority in the National Assembly. As a result, the prime minister and president may come from separate political parties.
French presidential and legislative elections are held using a two-round first-past-the-post voting system, in contrast to European elections that use a proportional voting method.Essentially, the top two candidates from Sunday, June 30, who place first in the first round, go automatically to the second round. Furthermore, candidates who receive at least 12.5 per cent of the total vote cast by registered voters - rather than the actual vote-casting public, as is frequently the case - also win.In the second round, voters will then have to choose between the top two candidates.
When is the next vote?
The candidates who garner the highest number of votes in each constituency will advance to a run-off on July 7.
