French voters went to the polls Sunday in the first round of parliamentary elections, with all 577 National Assembly seats at play. The left-wing NUPES coalition came out neck and neck with Emmanuel Macron’s presidential group, while Marine Le Pen’s National Rally and the right-wing Républicains trail behind. Here are the major takeaways from Sunday’s vote.
In the seven weeks since Macron was reelected president in a runoff against far-right leader Le Pen, France’s political landscape has shifted. A new alliance between the four largest left-wing parties made the left, rather than the hard right, the main challenger to the presidential coalition in the race for France’s 577 parliamentary seats. On Sunday, that dynamic was borne out as Macron’s Ensemble coalition virtually tied with the NUPES bloc, led by leftist firebrand Jean-Luc Mélenchon, even amid record-low turnout.
