With 52.49 percent of voters choosing to stay away on Sunday, France recorded its highest-ever abstention rate in the first round of the legislative elections, surpassing the 2017 record by a full point. Voter turnout will remain a major issue for next Sunday's run-off, as candidates cajole voters head to the polls for the fourth time in two months following April's two-round presidential election.
One key challenge for Emmanuel Macron's centre-right Ensemble ("Together") alliance and Jean-Luc Mélenchon's pan-leftist NUPES coalition – the two factions that topped first-round voting on Sunday, with just over 25 percent each – will be to get voters to spend yet another spring day at the ballot box.
