Voter turnout across France has surged to a near four-decade high as voters cast their ballots to elect 577 members of the country’s National Assembly.
President Emmanuel Macron called for the snap parliamentary election after his alliance suffered a heavy defeat to the far-right National Rally party at the European Parliament elections on June 9.
With three hours remaining until polls closed on Sunday, June 30, 2024, voter turnout had reached 59.39% .
According to the interior ministry, this is an increase of nearly 20 points compared with the 2022 elections.
Turnout in the first round of the 2022 legislative elections was 47.5 percent – the lowest ever recorded.
Research Director for Ipsos France, Mathieu Gallard, told a news agency that the turnout on Sunday is estimated to be the highest since the 1986 legislative vote.
Following Sunday’s vote, campaigning will resume on Monday, July 1, 2024, for a further five days before voters are called back to the polls for the second-round ballot on July 7, 2024.
Much could change in the five days between rounds, particularly if candidates embrace tactical alliances and withdrawals in order to block the far-right from winning a majority.
The outcome of the two-round election remains highly uncertain, even though polls suggest support for Le Pen’s far-right, anti-immigrant National Rally (RN) has strengthened in recent days.
In the south of France, immigration has become the main topic, with people fearing the far-right National Rally’s potential election victory.
Few key points from the far-right party’s planned immigration policy – which party leader Jordan Bardella says will be submitted to the parliament within weeks of any election win, include removal of all exemptions that prevent the expulsion of foreigners, removal of birthright citizenship – a practice that for centuries has granted citizenship to those born in France to foreign parents once they reach 18, as well as imposing restrictions on family reunification by imposing tougher visa conditions.
Fraught Cohabitation To Ensue If RN Wins Majority
If the RN wins a majority, the party chief, Jordan Bardella, who has no governing experience, could become Prime Minister in a fraught cohabitation with Macron.
The result could pit the two men, who have vastly different visions of France’s future, against each other.
One example is France’s strong support for Ukraine, championed by Macron since Russia’s 2022 invasion.
Bardella has said that he would use his powers as Prime Minister to stop Macron from continuing to supply long-range weapons to Ukraine.
Nonetheless, Macron has insisted that he will serve out the remainder of his second term until 2027, regardless of which party wins.
Speaking with a news agency, Pierre Haski, a political analyst, opined that the cohabitation of Macron and the National Rally “would be unchartered territory for France.”
“President Macron was hoping that the French reaction [to the snap vote] would be ‘we don’t want them [National Rally] in power, they are a strong opposition but we don’t want them in power’ and it seems possible that this time, in the first time the French would say ‘OK, let’s try them’.
“There is a lot of resentment against President Macon. He saw that in the European elections, his party did very badly, and he gambled and it seems that he’s about to lose.”
Pierre Haski
He added that the left bloc would also “strongly” affect Macron’s centrist alliance.
