Solène Leroux with AFP 7:00 p.m., June 12, 2022, modified at 7:01 p.m., June 12, 2022
The French have been voting since this Sunday morning to elect their deputies.
It is a clash between the coalition supporting Emmanuel Macron, in search of an absolute majority, and the revived left behind Jean-Luc Mélenchon.
This first round of legislative elections should be marked by record abstention, estimated between 52.5 and 53%.
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The latest polls published on Friday place Together!
in the lead in number of deputies, but not necessarily with the absolute majority -289 seats out of 577- that macronie held in the previous National Assembly elected in 2017. If Emmanuel Macron obtained only a relative majority, he would be forced to compose with the other parliamentary groups to have its legal texts approved.
If, in the least likely scenario, Jean-Luc Mélenchon's Nupes won an absolute majority, Emmanuel Macron would be deprived of practically all his powers.
15 members of the government in the running
It is with this objective in mind that Jean-Luc Mélenchon kept repeating that he wanted to make these legislative elections "a third round" which would allow him to be "elected Prime Minister".
Emmanuel Macron has chosen to pose, as during the presidential election, as a bulwark against "the extremes".
Including Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne, fifteen members of the government are in the running for the legislative elections and will have to leave the executive in the event of defeat, in accordance with an unwritten rule but already applied in 2017 by Emmanuel Macron.
In Guadeloupe where we voted on Saturday, the Secretary of State for the Sea Justine Benin (MoDem) is in a favorable ballot against the candidate Nupes Christian Baptiste.
6,300 candidates are running for the 577 seats
After Marine Le Pen garnered more than 40% of the votes in the second round of the presidential election, the National Rally is, according to the latest polls, outdistanced by Nupes and Together!
for legislative purposes.
However, he could obtain between 20 and 40 deputies, against eight elected in 2017, and thus form a parliamentary group for the first time since 1986.
The ex-extreme right presidential candidate, Éric Zemmour, also nourishes, in the Var, the hope of being elected deputy.
Finally, these legislative elections promise to be at very high risk for the traditional right of the Republicans (LR), whose candidate Valérie Pécresse obtained less than 5% of the votes in the presidential election.
Nearly 6,300 candidates are running for the 577 seats.
Those who will not be elected on Sunday evening will have to, to access the second round of June 19, either arrive in the first two in their constituency, or obtain the votes of 12.5% of registered voters.