Paris | France holds a parliamentary run-off election on Sunday that will reconfigure the political landscape, with opinion polls forecasting the far-right National Rally (RN) will win the most votes, but probably fall short of a majority.

Such an outcome could plunge the country into a chaotic hung parliament, severely denting the authority of President Emmanuel Macron. Equally, if the nationalist, eurosceptic RN did win a majority, the pro-business, pro-Europe president could find himself forced into a difficult “cohabitation”.

Marine Le Pen’s RN scored historic gains to win last Sunday’s first-round vote, raising the spectre of France’s first far-right government since World War II.

But after centrist and leftist parties joined forces over the past week in a bid to forge an anti-RN barricade, Le Pen’s hopes of the RN winning an absolute majority in the 577-seat National Assembly seem less certain.

Polls suggest the RN will become the dominant legislative force, but fail to reach the 289-seat majority that Le Pen and her 28-year-old protégé Jordan Bardella believe would allow them to claim the prime minister’s job and drag France sharply rightward.

Polls open at 8am (0600 GMT) and close at 6pm in towns and small cities and 8pm (1800 GMT) in larger cities, with initial projections expected the moment voting ends, based on partial counts from a sample of polling stations.

Much will depend on whether voters follow the calls of leading anti-RN alliances to block the far right from power, or support far-right contenders.

Raphael Glucksmann, a member of the European Parliament who led France’s leftist ticket in last month’s European vote, said he viewed Sunday’s run-off as a simple referendum on whether “the Le Pen family takes over this country.”

“France is on the cliff-edge and we don’t know if we’re going to jump,” he told France Inter radio last week.