French Prime Minister Calls for United Front to Stop Far-Right Takeover

Paris (AFP) – The French prime minister on Wednesday called on voters to form a united front to block the far right in legislative elections, warning that Marine Le Pen’s anti-immigration party was on the verge of winning an absolute majority.

Published on: 07/03/2024 – 18:18Amended: 07/03/2024 – 18:16

4 minutes

With four days to go until the second round of voting, France’s political future remains uncertain as the far-right National Rally (RN) party seeks to take control of the government for the first time.

The RN dominated the first round of voting, giving Marine Le Pen’s party the prospect of forming a government and her protégé Jordan Bardella, 28, the chance to take over as prime minister in a tense “cohabitation” with centrist President Emmanuel Macron.

But more than 200 left-wing and centrist candidates abandoned the three-way second-round vote this week in a bid to prevent the RN from winning the seats.

While the formation of the so-called “Republican Front” appears to have been a general success for the government, the key question now is whether voters will respond to calls to block the RN.

“There is a bloc that is able to have an absolute majority and it is the extreme right,” Prime Minister Gabriel Attal declared on France Inter.

“On Sunday evening, the challenge of the second round is to do everything possible to ensure that the far right does not have an absolute majority,” he declared.

“It is not pleasant for many French people to have to block (the RN)… by voting for a party they did not want,” he added, but “it is our responsibility to do so.”

“Completely new elections”

In an extreme example of how the united front works, in one constituency in northern France the far-left candidate withdrew to make way for a direct contest between the far right and outspoken Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin – long a figure hated by some on the left.

Former Prime Minister Edouard Philippe, still an influential voice in the pro-Macron camp, told TF1 television that he would vote for a communist candidate to stop the far right in his constituency.

An absolute majority of 289 seats is required in the 577-seat National Assembly for a single party to form a government.

But Le Pen said the RN would try to convince other MPs if it won more than 270 seats.

According to London-based risk analysis firm Eurasia Group, the RN’s hopes of winning an absolute majority have been “blunted” by the front against the far right.

Marine Le Pen has described as “grotesque” calls for multi-party alliances against her National Rally. © Dimitar DILKOFF / AFP

But he adds: “Sunday is an almost entirely new election, with its own dynamic. Turnout will be crucial.”

Janine Mossuz-Lavau, emeritus research director at the Cevipof institute in Paris, believes that voters “will do what they want” regardless of the appeals of politicians, and that turnout is likely to be lower than the 66.7% of the first round.

“There are those who will say ‘I will not choose between cholera and the plague and I will not vote’,” she told AFP.

“Grotesque image”

One option that is receiving increasing media attention is the possibility that instead of a far-right government, France will be led by a broad coalition of pro-Macron centrists, the traditional right, the Socialists and the Greens.

Philippe said that after the election he would support a new parliamentary majority that could stretch from the conservative right to the social democrats, but would not include the far-left France Insoumise (LFI).

Xavier Bertrand, a right-wing politician who served as a minister under Nicolas Sarkozy, echoed his comments. He called for the establishment of a “provisional government” whose mandate would be to “rebuild our country.”

Le Pen, for his part, denounced the tactical maneuvers and rumors of alliances.

Macron kept a studied silence © Aurélien Morissard / POOL/AFP

“The political class is giving an increasingly grotesque image of itself,” she wrote on X.

Following the controversy surrounding some RN candidates, one of whom withdrew after a photo of her wearing a Nazi Luftwaffe cap was released, Bardella acknowledged that there could be “black sheep” but insisted that he was not worried.

Macron has kept his distance from the final phase of the vote, which will reveal the outcome of his electoral gamble that has disconcerted even his close colleagues.

He has not spoken in public since last Thursday’s EU summit.

During a cabinet meeting, he said there was “no doubt” that a post-election coalition could include LFI, a participant told AFP.