French parties rush to build anti-far right front

Paris, July 1

France’s political parties sought to build a united front aimed at blocking the path to government of Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally (RN) on Monday, after it made historic gains to win the first round of a parliamentary election.

The RN and its allies won Sunday’s round with 33% of the vote, followed by a left-wing bloc with 28% and well ahead of President Emmanuel Macron’s broad alliance of centrists, who scored just 22%, official results showed.

While financial markets rallied on relief the RN tally was not greater, it was still a huge setback for Macron, who had called the snap election after his ticket was trounced by the RN in the European Parliament election last month.

“I’m satisfied, because we need change,” said RN supporter Jean-Claude Gaillet, 64, in Le Pen’s northern stronghold of Henin-Beaumont. “Things have not moved, and they must move.” But others feared the rise of the RN and its nationalist platform would cause growing tensions in French society.

Leaders of both the left-wing New Popular Front and Macron’s centrist alliance indicated on Sunday night they would withdraw their own candidates in districts where another candidate was better placed to beat the RN in next Sunday’s run-off.

However it was not clear whether such a pact would always apply if the left-wing candidate was from the far-left France Unbowed (LFI) party of Jean-Luc Melenchon, one of the main members of the New Popular Front. Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire, a Macron party ally, ruled out calling on voters to choose an LFI candidate. “LFI is a danger for the nation”, he told France Inter radio. — Reuters