Left Alliance welcomes surprise defeat of far-right in France

The far-right National Rally (RN) was widely expected to win these early elections, but it was defeated and relegated to third place.

A left-wing alliance called the New Popular Front won the most seats after a busy and shortened election called just four weeks ago by a weakened president, Emmanuel Macron.

The National Rally (RN) won the first round of this election, and all opinion polls since then predicted a victory in the second round.

Instead, France now finds itself facing a parliament without an absolute majority, with no party having any majority.

RN leader Jordan Bardella accused “unnatural political alliances” of slowing their rise to power.

Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, appointed by President Macron only seven months ago, said he would submit his resignation in the morning, while stressing that his Ensemble alliance was on track to win three times the number of seats expected.

This is partly because 217 candidates, mainly from the left alliance and the Macron camp, withdrew from the race to help their political rivals defeat the RN.

Many people were unhappy with the decision, but it meant that voters who had supported the centre or the left in the first round switched to a rival party a week later, with the sole aim of preventing the far right from taking control of parliament.

Mr Bardella complained that millions of French voters had been deprived of an answer to France’s cost of living crisis by what he condemned as “alliances of dishonour”.

“We do not want power for power’s sake, but to give it to the French people,” Mr Bardella told his supporters.

His party colleague Sébastien Chenu accused the Macron alliance of having allowed a victory for the left, leaving France in a “quagmire” imagined by the president.

This alliance has now led France into a parliament without an absolute majority, but also into uncharted territory since the largest group in the left alliance is led by the radical and abrasive Jean-Luc Mélenchon, whose France Insoumise is widely considered very left-wing by his rivals.

A TF1 projection gives France Insoumise (LFI) up to 94 seats, by far the largest number of its alliance.

He was quick to seize the opportunity, telling his supporters: “The president’s defeat is clear; the president must accept his defeat, the prime minister must go.”

Just over an hour later, Mr Attal – unlike President Macron, a very popular politician – said he would do just that.

In a speech from his residence at the Hôtel Matignon, he said French voters had rejected the prospect of an extreme government. He praised all the candidates who withdrew from the race to prevent the RN from winning.

“Tomorrow morning I will submit my resignation,” he said. “A new era begins tonight.”

Addressing the millions of voters who supported the far right, he added: “I respect each and every one of you, because there are no categories of French people who vote well and those who vote badly.”

His fate is now in the hands of the president, as France needs a stable government for the Paris Olympics, which begin on July 26. Mr. Attal has said he is prepared to stay in office “as long as duty demands.”

But few within the New Popular Front are happy to see him remain in power.

“The president has the power and the duty to call on us, the New Popular Front, to govern. We are ready,” Mr. Mélenchon declared.

Hastily put together when Mr Macron stunned France with the two-round vote, the alliance includes the Greens, the Communists and the Socialists as well as La France Insoumise.

Marine Tondelier, the leader of the Greens, acknowledged that the Popular Front was now ready to govern France: “We have won and now we are going to govern France.” But she added that this was not the time to push for a new prime minister.

“France has said no to the arrival of the extreme right in power. The extreme right has chosen to divide the French,” declared the leader of the socialists Olivier Faure.

One of France’s most respected politicians, Macron’s former prime minister Edouard Philippe, said the election campaign had brought great uncertainty to France.

While an “overwhelming majority” of French people said no to the RN, it also did not give the left a majority to govern. It is now up to the political forces of the center, he said, to seek an agreement that would restore stability in France after weeks of tensions.