When Emmanuel Macron called a shock election after the French far right’s victory in the 9 June European elections, he gambled on one of the shortest and most high-risk electoral campaigns in our country’s history. At a moment when the far right had just gained a record number of seats in the European parliament, the president’s unilateral and reckless act – deciding to dissolve parliament three years before elections were due – plunged the country into fear and uncertainty.
Macron was certainly not banking on the left forming a new alliance called the New Popular Front (NFP) and putting a solid programme together in record time to contest the elections. In the end, enough voters mobilised against the far right as a threat to the republic, and the election led to the consolidation of three parliamentary blocs in the national assembly. The NFP came first, beating Macron’s centre-right alliance, Ensemble, into second place. Marine Le Pen’s far-right Rassemblement National (the National Rally) came third.
