On Sunday, the French president called for “democratic and republican” forces to unite against Le Pen’s party. “Faced with the [rise of the] National Rally, we need to foster a wide unity that is clearly democratic and republican ahead of the second round,” Macron said, according to a statement from the Elysée Palace. “The high turnout … shows how important the vote was for our fellow citizens, and how they want to clarify the political situation.”
The French president shocked the nation and France’s international allies when he triggered the vote only a couple of weeks before the Olympic Games, after a humiliating defeat in June’s European parliament election.
It was an audacious move designed to stop the far right advance in its tracks by forcing French voters to choose a new parliament. On the strength of the early projections so far, his gamble looks set to fail.
What next?
In constituencies where three candidates have qualified to go through to the second round next Sunday, the third-placed candidate will be under pressure to pull out to defeat the National Rally. It looks likely that Macron will face a tough choice in many areas over whether to withdraw his candidates in an effort to defeat Le Pen’s party.
Former Prime Minister Édouard Philippe, a Macron ally, called on people to vote against National Rally and far-left France Unbowed candidates. “I consider that no vote should be cast for the candidates of the National Rally, nor for those of [hard-left] France Unbowed,” said Philippe, who is Macron’s former prime minister and the head of center-right party Horizons. He called on the presidential camp’s voters to back left-wing candidates only from the Green, Socialist and Communist parties.
This developing story is being updated.
