Far right hopes to make history as France votes in snap poll

France is voting on Sunday in a parliamentary election that could make history, with the far right closer to power than it has ever been in modern times.

The National Rally (RN) of Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella are well ahead in the polls – three weeks to the day since they won European elections and President Emmanuel Macron reacted by calling a national vote.

More than 2.6 million people of France’s 49 million voters have registered to vote by proxy, an indication of the high turnout expected for such a pivotal election.

This is a two-round election, and most of the National Assembly’s 577 seats will not be decided until the second-round run-off vote next Sunday.

The campaign only lasted 20 days, and that also benefited RN, which quickly refined its existing promises on immigration, insecurity as well as tax cuts to tackle the cost-of-living crisis.

Jordan Bardella wants to be RN’s first prime minister, and his party is confident of winning dozens of constituencies outright in the first round.

But he says he will only take the job if the party secures an absolute parliamentary majority of 289 seats. The alternative would be a hung parliament and stalemate.

As soon as the first results come in on Sunday evening, National Rally’s opponents will have to decide who to back in run-off battles across France, in a bid to ensure that absolute majority does not happen.

If the polls are right, many of the run-offs will pit the National Rally against a hastily cobbled together left-wing alliance called New Popular Front, which believes it could even win the election.

In previous elections, parties from across the spectrum have united to keep the far right out and voters have held their noses to do so.

Source BBC