PARIS: The French vote on Sunday in a high-stakes snap parliamentary election that could change the trajectory of France and see Marine Le Pen’s far-right party take power for the first time.
With Russia’s war against Ukraine now in its third year and energy and food prices much higher, support for the anti-immigrant and Eurosceptic National Assembly (RN) party has surged despite President Emmanuel Macron’s promises to prevent its rise.
Polling stations open across mainland France for the first round of elections at 8:00 a.m. (06:00 GMT) and close 12 hours later, immediately followed by projections that usually predict the result with some degree of accuracy.
Voters in France’s overseas territories, which span the globe, cast ballots earlier in the weekend. About 49 million French people have the right to vote.
Elections for 577 parliamentary seats in the National Assembly take place in two rounds. The shape of the new parliament will become clear after the second round, a week later, on July 7.
Most polls show the National Assembly on track to win the largest number of seats in the National Assembly, the lower house of parliament, although it remains unclear whether the party will secure an outright majority.
A high turnout is predicted and the final opinion polls gave the RN between 35 and 37 percent of the vote, compared to 27.5-29 percent for the left-wing New Popular Front alliance and 20-21 percent for Macron’s centrist camp.
If the RN wins an absolute majority, RN party chief Jordan Bardella, a 28-year-old protégé of Le Pen’s with no experience in power, could become prime minister in a tense “cohabitation” with Macron.
On Monday, Macron plans to call a cabinet meeting to decide on the next course of action, government sources told AFP.
France is headed for a year of political chaos and confusion with a hung parliament, said Mujtaba Rahman, Europe director at Eurasia Group, a risk consultancy.
“There is no precedent in recent French politics for such an impasse,” Rahman said.
Macron’s decision to call snap elections after the RN’s strong showing in European Parliament elections this month has stunned friends and foes and sparked uncertainty in Europe’s second-largest economy.
In June, the Paris stock market suffered its biggest monthly decline in the last two years, falling by 6.4 percent, according to data published on Friday.
In an editorial, the French daily Monde said it was time to mobilize against the far right.
“Relinquishing any power to her means nothing less than risking the gradual undoing of everything that has been built and conquered over more than two and a half centuries,” it said.
Holding mops and buckets, several activists from the feminist collective Femen dressed as cleaners demonstrated bare-chested at the Trocadero in Paris on Saturday, shouting slogans against the extreme right.
Separately, thousands of people joined the LGBT Pride march in Paris, some carrying signs targeting the far right.
“I think right now it’s even more important to fight hate in general, in all its forms,” said 19-year-old student Themis Hallin-Malet.
Many have pointed to a spike in hate speech, intolerance and racism during the alleged campaign. In recent days, a video of two RN supporters verbally attacking a black woman has gone viral.
Macron condemned “racism or anti-Semitism”.
Macron had apparently hoped to catch political opponents off guard by giving voters a crucial choice about France’s future, but observers say he may have lost his gamble.
Support for Macron’s centrist camp has collapsed, while left-wing parties have put aside their feuds to form the New Popular Front, in support of an alliance founded in 1936 to fight fascism.
Analysts say Le Pen’s years-long efforts to clean up the image of the party co-founded by a former member of the Waffen SS have paid off. The party has promised to strengthen purchasing power, curb immigration and strengthen law and order.
“Victory is within our reach, so let’s seize this historic opportunity and get out and vote!” Le Pen wrote on social media platform X on Friday.
Under Macron, France has been one of the main Western backers of Ukraine since the 2022 Russian invasion.
But Le Pen and Bardella said they would reduce French support for Ukraine by ruling out the deployment of ground troops and long-range missiles.
A defiant Macron stood by his decision to call the election, while warning voters that a far-right or hard-left victory could spark “civil war”.
He has insisted that he will serve out the rest of his second term until 2027, regardless of which party wins.
