Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s red-green alliance made a strong showing in the first round of France’s legislative elections, giving it a chance of challenging President Emmanuel Macron for control of the National Assembly in the final round of voting next weekend,
Financial Times reports.
The results showed Mélenchon’s alliance, the New Ecological and Social Popular Union (Nupes), and Macron’s centrist Ensemble (Together) were the main winners from the vote on Sunday, and would be the two biggest groups in the assembly.
Mélenchon’s success, however, is unlikely to translate into a majority in the 577-seat assembly, because moderate voters wary of his reputation as an extreme-left, Eurosceptic firebrand are expected to rally to Macron’s side in the second round on June 19. Macron’s group will remain the largest bloc in the assembly and is forecast to end up with between 260 and 295 seats, against 160-210 for Mélenchon’s, according to polling group Elabe.
A party or alliance needs 289 seats for an outright majority. Mélenchon called on voters to “surge” to the polls for next Sunday’s second round of voting “to definitively reject Mr Macron’s disastrous plans” and have their say after “30 years of neoliberalism”.
Élisabeth Borne, Macron’s prime minister, criticised the political “extremes” opposing her government and said: “We are the only political force able to win a majority in the National Assembly . . . Given the world situation and the war at the gates of Europe we can’t take the risk of instability.”
Each constituency elects its own député, and in most the voters’ choice has been narrowed from about a dozen candidates to just two in the second round. In many, the runoff will be between Macron’s candidate and Mélenchon’s.
