Unified French left seeks to challenge Macron’s grip in parliamentary elections

The first round of parliamentary elections provides a crucial coda to April’s election, when the president won a second term and pledged a new era.

Emmanuel Macron on the doorstep of the Elysee palace last week. Picture: AFP

France began voting in the first round of parliamentary elections on Sunday, with a resurgent and newly unified left seeking to thwart President Emmanuel Macron’s plans for reform.

Elections for the 577 seats in the lower house National Assembly are a two-round process, with the shape of the new parliament becoming clear only after the second round on June 19.

The ballots provide a crucial coda to April’s presidential election, when Mr Macron won a second term and pledged a transformative new era after a first mandate dominated by protests, the coronavirus pandemic and Russia’s war against Ukraine.

Polls opened at 8am in mainland France, after voters in overseas territories cast ballots earlier in the weekend.

After a dismal performance in April, the French left has united in a coalition for what its leader Jean-Luc Melenchon, 70, dubs “the third round” of the presidential elections.

Opinion polls show Mr Macron’s centrist alliance, Together, and Mr Melenchon’s NUPES coalition of hard left, Socialists, communists and greens neck-and-neck in the popular vote.

But France’s constituency-based parliamentary system and the two-round election means the seat breakdown will be another matter, and much will depend on turnout in the second round.

The abstention rate is predicted to be well over 50 per cent in the first round, in what would be a new record for elections already marked by feeble participation.

If Mr Macron’s alliance retains an overall majority, he will be able to carry on governing as before.

Falling short could prompt messy Bill-by-Bill deals with right-wing parties in parliament or an unwanted cabinet reshuffle.

A win by the left-wing alliance – seen as unlikely by analysts but not impossible – would be a disaster for Mr Macron. It would raise the spectre of a clunky “cohabitation” – where the Prime Minister and President hail from different factions – which has paralysed French politics in the past.

Mr Melenchon, a former Marxist, has already made clear his ambition to become prime minister and stymie Mr Macron’s plan to raise the French retirement age, although the President would retain control over foreign policy.

Stepping into the fray on Thursday, Mr Macron, 44, acknowledged the stakes were high, warning France against choosing “extremes” that would add “crisis to crisis”.

Polls have indicated that Mr Macron’s alliance is expected to win the largest number of seats but is by no means assured of getting over the line of 289 for an absolute majority. Together and its allies currently hold 345 seats.

A candidate needs more than half the vote on the day as well as the backing of at least 25 per cent of registered voters in a constituency to be elected outright in the first round. Otherwise the top two candidates, as well as any other who won the backing of at least 12.5 per cent of voters, go to the second round, where the candidate with the most votes wins.

AFP