Marine Le Pen’s National Rally party wins first round in French election but faces new alliances next Sunday’s final poll

Within hours of National Rally doubling its support and winning round one, political opponents began deal-making, urging strategic voting of anyone but the far-right party in the final round.

Marine Le Pen and Les Republicains right-wing party president Eric Ciotti attend a press conference. Picture: AFP.

Marine Le Pen’s National Rally party has almost doubled its vote and leads in the first round of France’s legislative elections.

But her far right party’s support may fall just short of a complete majority, analysts say, with alliances already forming among other left and centrist parties to try and stop the momentum of the National Rally in the second round.

Predictions are that the RN may get up to 280 seats but require 289 to govern in their own right. The polling group Ipsos says the RN could win 230-280 seats, falling short of a majority.

Scoring an estimated 34 per cent of the vote in the first round on Sunday, the National Rally (RN) is in the strongest position going into next Sunday’s second round.

The new alliance of left-wing parties, the Nouveau Front Populaire, reached 28.1 per cent.

The centrist Ensemble party led by the president Emmanuel Macron was third on 20.3 per cent and he immediately called on voters to block the far right in the second round.

The Republicans, a right-wing group, picked up 10 per cent of the vote and has not revealed their preferences at this point.

The top two candidates in each of the 577 districts go through to the second round, as well as some third placed, and even fourth placed candidates depending if they obtain a number of votes greater than 12.5% of those registered. In the coming days there will be horse trading in each of the districts to convince some candidates to withdraw so as to not split the left wing or right wing vote.

However some RN candidates, including Marine Le Pen have already won outright in the first round. She attracted 58 per cent of the vote in Pas de Calais.

Ms Le Pen said: “The French have shown in a vote without ambiguity their will to turn the page on seven years of corrosive power.”

In another district in northern France the Communist Party leader Fabien Roussel has been knocked out in the first round by National Rally candidate, Guillaume Florquin.

Mr Macron called on more voters to turn out at the polling station next Sunday and urged them to revert to their previous tactics of voting for candidates best placed to beat the far right.

“Faced with the RN, it is time for a large, clearly democratic and republican rally for the second round,“ Mr Macron said. He said the high voting turnout in the first round of around 60 per showed the will of the people “to clarify the political situation”.

Mr Macron had called the snap elections after his party’s dismal performance in the European parliament vote and has staked his political future on whether French voters are indeed truly supportive of the RN party. He has vowed to stay as president, even if his party loses, creating a “cohabitation situation’’ with a rival prime minister until presidential elections in 2027.

Ms Le Pen urged supporters to give her party an absolute majority in the National Assembly, warning that if the far left alliance gets up the country could face threats of violence.

She said: “We need an absolute majority for Jordan Bardella to be named prime minister by Emmanuel Macron in eight days.

She said a win would enable the RN to work on France’s recovery, “avoiding the country falling into the hands of far left leaning toward violence.”

The socialist party’s Olivier Faure, who was also elected in the first round, called for tactical voting saying “for the first time since the Second World War, the far right could govern the country.”

“We must block the RN in the second round,” he said.