French election as it happened: Far-right dominates first round of voting

Rassemblement National politicians expressed confidence that tactical manoeuvres by their rivals would not prevent them from winning an outright majority on July 7.

With hundreds of three-way run-offs expected, President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist alliance and the leftwing group Nouveau Front Populaire are racing to decide whether to have their candidates drop out in certain districts to block the RN from winning an outright majority in the National Assembly.

Bruno Clavet, an RN politician who won his district in Lens-Avion outright in the first round, said he did not think voters would be moved by such tactics. “People have understood that the last right they have is their voting ballot,” he said at the RN’s election night party in Henin-Beaumont. “Voters are not going to follow alliances from these parties of the past.”

François Hollande reiterated leftwing calls for a “republican front” against the far right, as the former French president came in first place in his seat in la Corrèze.

“We have the urgent duty to make sure the extreme right does not get a majority in the National Assembly,” he said, calling on third placed candidates to drop out of the race.

Hollande is seeking election to the assembly in a surprise return to frontline politics and faces a run-off with an RN candidate and the sitting Francis Dubois of the Republicans, if Dubois does not withdraw ahead of the second round.

Prime minister Gabriel Attal said his campaign’s priority heading into the second round of voting was to deprive the far-right of an outright majority in parliament after his centrist alliance came in third place in the first round poll.

“The lesson tonight is that the extreme right is on the verge of taking power. Never in our history has our National Assembly been as in peril of being dominated by the far right,” said Attal in an address in front of his offices at Matignon.

“Our objective is clear: stopping the RN from having an absolute majority in the second round and governing the country with its disastrous project.”

The prime minister, who is leading the campaign for president Macron’s centrist alliance, said the goal was to build an alternative majority in the assembly.

The centrist Ensemble coalition said its priority remained blocking the far-right from coming to power as it argued that its candidates would be better placed than the leftist NFP alliance to beat them “in several hundred constituencies”.

Ensemble said in a statement that its candidates would drop out in places where its candidates had come in third in favour of contenders “in a position to beat the [far-right] RN and with whom we share the essential: the values of the Republic”.

Macron’s centrist alliance which includes Ensemble, led by prime minister Gabriel Attal, and allied parties such as Horizons and Modem, are projected to finish in third in the first round, trailing the far-right RN and the NFP.

“These results confirm our consistent position: the left is paying for its alliance with the [far left party] France Insoumise,” Ensemble said.

The leader of the French Communist party Fabien Roussel has lost his seat in the 20th constituency of the North department to a Rassemblement National candidate, in an indication of the RN’s success in winning over working-class voters.

RN candidate Guillaume Florquin won 50.3 per cent of the vote, meaning that he is elected in the first round and will not face a run-off next week against Roussel, won just over 30 per cent of votes.

Sébastien Vincini, the socialist president of the Haute Garonne department, said the outcome was a “terrible” result, adding: “We have lost an important voice of the left.”

He said the result showed that voters had “seen the state become distant” in many deindustrialised regions, and that a “feeling of abandonment” had pushed them towards the far right.

Former prime minister Édouard Philippe, who heads the Horizons party that is part of President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist alliance, advised citizens not to vote for the far-right Rassemblement National nor the far-left la France Insoumise in the second round of snap elections. 

The call is part of the manoeuvring that has kicked off as parties decide whether to maintain their candidates in what are expected to be hundreds of three-way run offs. Leftwing and centrist candidates will be under heavy pressure to drop out to try to block the RN from winning an outright majority on July 7. 

“I will propose to the Horizons candidates who came in third.. to withdraw in favour of the candidates and the parties with which we share the same democratic and republican demands,” said Philippe before his supporters.

The Conservative Les Républicains (LR) party refused to advise voters to vote against the far-right in the second round of the election next week.

In a statement on Sunday, the Gaullist party which won an estimated 10 per cent of votes, said “Macronism is dead” but did not give supporters voting recommendations for constituencies where it is out of the race.

The move marks a definite departure with the Republican tradition of presenting a united front against the far-right, which right-wing and left-wing parties have long adhered to.

“As we consider that voters are free to choose, we are not giving voting recommendations and are letting French people express themselves in full conscience,” said the statement.

François-Xavier Bellamy, who led the party in the European election earlier this month said: “The danger looming over our country today is the far-left.”

Marine Le Pen celebrated the Rassemblement National’s first-round election win with supporters in the northern town of Hénin-Beaumont, where she hailed the result as “an unambiguous vote that shows the French people’s willingness to turn the page”.

To huge cheers, Le Pen cautioned that the second round would be key, calling on her voter base to rally and for others to ignore “scaremongering” and back her far-right party.

“If you made another choice today I call on you next Sunday to join the coalition of freedom, security and unity,” Le Pen said. 

“To bring about the reforms this country needs, we need an outright majority,” she added. 

The party hopes to get enough seats in the lower house of parliament so that the RN’s Jordan Bardella can become prime minister, in a power-sharing agreement with President Emmanuel Macron.

Jean-Luc Mélenchon issued a clear vote to withdraw all left wing candidates where they are in third place, in a bid to block the Rassemblement National.

The leader of the hard left La France Insoumise said: “Our order is clear: no vote, not a single seat more for the RN.”

A record number of constituencies are expected to have three candidates running for the second round. However, as the leftwing alliance is expected to come second overall, it may only have to drop out in a small number of constituencies.

The far right could secure between 230 and 280 seats in parliament next week, falling short of an outright majority but challenging Emmanuel Macron with a hung parliament, according to projections by pollster Ipsos.

Initial projections suggest that Marine Le Pen’s far-right party secured 34.5 per cent of the vote in the first round. Ipsos projects 125 to 165 seats for the NFP, the leftwing coalition, and 70 to 100 seats for Macron’s centrist party.

However, the estimates do not take account of the likelihood that many candidates will stand down in the second round when involved in three-way run-offs, which are expected in a record number of constituencies.

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A planned speech by prime minister Gabriel Attal at the centrist Ensemble campaign headquarters was moved at the last minute to his offices at Matignon.

Disgruntled television crews packed up their equipment to sprint across town as first results projected that Marine Le Pen’s far-right Rassemblement National party had won the first round of the election with 34 per cent.

Macron’s centrist camp, which Attal has led in the campaign, is expected to come in third after the leftist Nouveau Front Populaire. 

President Emmanuel Macron has lauded voters for coming out en masse to vote in snap elections after his centrist alliance was on track to come in third place behind the winner, the far-right Rassemblement National. 

“The high participation in the first round of these legislative elections testifies to the importance of this vote for all our compatriots and the desire to clarify the political situation,” he said in a statement. 

“Faced with the Rassemblement National, the time has come for a large, clear alliance between democratic and republican forces for the second round.”

There were huge cheers in Hénin-Beaumont and chants of “Marine! Marine!” where the Rassemblement National figurehead is due to appear shortly. Initial election estimates as polls closed put the RN ahead.

Marine Le Pen’s far-right party has battered President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist alliance in the first round of snap parliamentary elections, moving France closer to a potential nationalist government that would jolt the European project.

After unusually high turnout, the Rassemblement National (RN) party won 34.5 per cent of the vote, while the leftwing Nouveau Front Populaire alliance came in second with 28.5 per cent, according to projections by pollster Ifop at 8pm local time. Macron’s Ensemble alliance secured 22.5 per cent of the vote.

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The manoeuvres ahead of the second round have already begun, with leftwing parties starting to declare their strategies for what are expected to be hundreds of three-way run-offs.

Johanna Rolland, the socialist mayor of Nantes, told journalists that they would be “extremely clear” about the second round so as to help block the far-right Rassemblement National from winning an outright majority.

“We will withdraw our candidate in all the triangulars where we are third and ask them all to vote against the RN,” she told journalists in Paris. She added that it was important to endorse run-off candidates against the RN, regardless of their political leaning.

In Paris’s 11th arrondissement, voters queued outside the town hall on Place Léon Blum, named after the leader of France’s Popular Front that led the left in 1936 to prevent the far right taking power.

Leftwing parties have come together again in these elections. The New Popular Front (NFP) is expected to perform well in Paris, where the RN has historically had poor results.

Fayçal Allouti, an NFP voter, said he was “worried” by the RN’s rise elsewhere. “I hope that between the surveys and the reality of the urns, something can happen,” he said.

Luana de Lamotte, a French-Brazilian voter, said she would back the outgoing centrist candidate, Clément Beaune.

“I’ve seen [former president of Brazil Jair] Bolsonaro so I know what it’s like to have a far right government,” she said. “I don’t agree with everything they’ve done but I’m not unhappy.” 

French President Emmanuel Macron was meeting on Sunday night with the party chiefs that make up his centrist alliance to hash out their response to the first round of voting that was expected to put them in third place.

The Ensemble alliance was in discussions at the Elysée palace over what strategy to adopt for the second round and whether to give a voting recommendation to their supporters. Polls showed the president’s camp was expected to lose heavily to Marine Le Pen’s far-right RN, and also get fewer votes than a new leftwing alliance.

There are expected to be hundreds of three-way run-offs, putting pressure on both the left candidates and those of Ensemble to tactically drop out to block the RN from winning an outright majority and claiming the premiership.

In Hénin-Beaumont, a Marine Le Pen fiefdom in the northern French region where she has also been an MP, several hundred supporters of the far-right Rassemblement National are already sipping champagne, French flags at the read as they await the first election estimates. 

“We’re hoping for a change of government,” said Christelle, a hairdresser from a village in the region who has come with her son. 

A long-time RN voter, she said the party has drawn her as “it thinks about French people first.”

French voters on Sunday turned out in record numbers in the first round of a high-stakes snap election that could usher in a far-right government and shake the EU to its core.

By 5pm local time, 59.39 per cent of voters had already cast their ballot, compared with 39.42 per cent in 2022 — making this year the highest turnout at this stage since 1986, according to Ipsos researcher Mathieu Gallard.

Voter participation is a key factor in this election because it will help determine how many of President Emmanuel Macron’s Ensemble candidates qualify for next week’s final round of voting. Pollsters on Sunday afternoon were predicting an unprecedented number of three-way runoffs on July 7 in nearly half of the 577 districts.

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Marine Le Pen’s far right Rassemblement National had the lead in opinion polls running up to Sunday’s first round of voting, with a 36.1 per cent share of the vote according to the FT’s poll tracker.

The left-wing Nouveau Front Populaire was in second place, with Emmanuel Macron’s centrist group in third with just 20.2 per cent.

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Prime Minister Gabriel Attal and socialist leader Olivier Faure, representing the left-wing Nouveau Front Populaire, attacked the extreme right’s plans to rework citizenship laws and restrict dual nationals from certain jobs in a televised debate on Thursday.

Jordan Bardella, the RN’s president and candidate for prime minister, has advocated barring dual nationals from “extremely sensitive jobs” in areas such as national security. He has also proposed ending birthright citizenship for those born in France to foreign parents, a practice in place since 1515.

“You’re not only dividing between French people and foreigners, now you’re dividing between French people,” said Faure.

The exchange was one of two heated debates last week between the three blocs, with candidates also clashing over their plans for the economy, pension reform and education.

The National Assembly has 577 seats representing constituencies in France and its overseas territories.

Voters in each constituency choose one candidate on the ballot paper. If any of the candidates receives more than 50 per cent of the vote in the first round, he or she is automatically elected.

If nobody reaches that level, the election goes to a second round featuring all candidates with over 12.5 per cent of the vote. The candidate with the highest number of votes in the second round is elected.

Welcome to the FT’s live coverage of results from the first round of the French legislative election.

Just three weeks ago, President Emmanual Macron called the shock vote after a poor showing from his centrist party in the European election. Since then, polls have suggested that the Rassemblement National party, led by the 28-year old Jordan Bardella, will perform well, perhaps strongly enough to force Macron into a power sharing government.

Stay with us as the exit poll and the results of the first round of voting roll in.