Two months after the presidential election, the French voted on Sunday June 12 for the first round of legislative elections.

An election expected in a turbulent political context (creation of the Nupes, debacle of the Republicans in the presidential election, high rate of abstention etc.).

What to remember from this first phase of the ballot?

France 24 takes stock. 

  • The left-wing coalition and the Macron camp neck and neck 

The united left and the camp of President Macron arrived neck and neck in the first round of the legislative elections on Sunday, against a backdrop of record abstention, thus opening the game of the second round in a week.

The Nupes (New People's Ecological and Social Union) is slightly in the lead with 25.6% of the vote ahead of the presidential coalition Together (25.2%), according to estimates by the polling institute Ipsos / Sopra Steria for France 24. 

According to the same source, the two leading parties are followed by the National Rally (RN), which obtained 19.1% of the vote.

The RN candidates failed to capitalize on the momentum of Marine Le Pen in the presidential election, who had garnered more than 40% of the votes in the second round.

Confined to eight elected in 2017, the contingent of RN deputies should however be much larger this time, and still count in its ranks Marine Le Pen, given largely in the lead in his constituency of Pas-de-Calais (around 55%) .

Conversely, in the wake of the heavy fall of its presidential candidate Valérie Pécresse, LR (13.6%) should lose its place as the leading opposition group in the National Assembly.

The other lists are below 10%.

The key to the second round will once again lie in the participation, historically low this Sunday for a first round of legislative elections and affecting young people and the working classes in priority.

The estimate of abstention currently stands at 52.3%, according to Ipsos / Sopra Steria for France 24. 

The opposing forces © FMM graphic studio

  • For Macronie, the tenuous hope of obtaining an absolute majority

The challenge of these legislative elections will be to obtain an absolute majority in the National Assembly next Sunday, i.e. 289 seats out of a total of 577. 

The first projections give an advantage to the outgoing majority united under the Ensemble label, with a range of 255 to 295 seats, ahead of the left (LFI, PCF, PS and EELV) gathered under the Nupes banner (150 to 190), according to Ipsos / Sopra Steria for France 24. 

On the Nupes side, there is little hope of imposing a government of cohabitation on Emmanuel Macron, as the plural left achieved in 1997 with Lionel Jospin.

While Jean-Luc Mélenchon had urged the French to make these elections a "third round" of the presidential election, the left should still establish itself as the main opposition bloc at the Palais-Bourbon.

A form of tactical half-victory when, on the other side of the hemicycle, the Republicans will count their survivors among the hundred outgoing, hoping to make the most of their local roots.

The National Rally would win between 20 and 45 seats. 

Estimates of the results of the 1st round of the legislative elections.

© FMM Graphic Studio

  • Qualified and eliminated personalities 

Among the outstanding results is the elimination of Jean-Michel Blanquer in the 4th constituency of Loiret, behind Bruno Nottin, candidate of the New Popular Ecological and Social Union (19.43%) and Thomas Ménagé, of the National Rally, who arrives in head with 31.45%.

Éric Zemmour was eliminated in the first round in the Var. 

More information to follow...

With AFP

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