French elections: Le Pen's RN wins first round

The Rassemblement National (RN), Marine Le Pen's right-wing populist party, received by far the most votes in the first round of the French parliamentary elections

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Dr Ralph Solveen

Commerzbank Economic Research

07/01/2024

while President Macron's camp suffered a heavy defeat. The "New Popular Front" formed by the left-wing parties received the second most votes. However, nothing has been decided yet, as a second round of voting is necessary in most constituencies. The Macron camp and the left-wing alliance have announced that they will withdraw their candidates if the other camp's candidate performs better in the first round. This reduces the RN's chances of winning an absolute majority of parliamentary seats. However, a coalition between the Macron camp and the left-wing alliance is unlikely to happen.

RN wins most votes, ...

As predicted by the polling institutes, Le Pen's Rassemblement National (RN) and its allies won the first round of the French parliamentary elections with around 33% of the vote. The New Popular Front, formed by the left-wing parties, received the second most votes with around 28%, while the parties supporting President Macron's policies came a distant third with a good 20% of the vote.

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