French candidates make hurried deals in bid to stop far-right National Rally from leading government

National Rally’s Marine Le Pen said her party would lead the government only if it wins an absolute majority – or close to it

Reading Time:3 minutes

Marine Le Pen of the French far-right National Rally (RN) party and RN Mayor of Perpignan Louis Aliot leave the party’s headquarters in Paris on Tuesday. Photo: AFP

Published: 6:23am, 3 Jul 2024

French opposition parties made hurried deals on Tuesday to try to block a landslide victory for Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally in Sunday’s second round of legislative elections, as she said her party would lead the government only if it wins an absolute majority – or close to it.

The National Rally, under party president Jordan Bardella, secured the most votes in the first round of the early legislative elections on June 30 but not enough to claim an overall victory that would allow the formation of France’s first far-right government since World War II.

“We cannot accept going into government if we cannot act,” Le Pen said in an interview with public broadcaster France Inter. “It would be the worst betrayal of our voters.” However, “if we have, say, 270 lawmakers, we need 19 more, we will go to others and ask them if they are ready to participate with us in a new majority”.

National Rally party president Jordan Bardella. Photo: AP

Round one propelled the National Rally closer than ever to government but left open the possibility that voters could block its path to power on Sunday.

An unprecedented number of candidates who qualified for round two from the left-wing alliance of the New Popular Front and from President Emmanuel Macron’s weakened centrists have stepped aside to favour the candidate most likely to win against a National Rally opponent. Several Cabinet ministers were among those who abandoned the race.

According to a count by French newspaper Le Monde, some 218 candidates supposed to compete in the second round have pulled out. Of those, 130 were on the left and 82 came from the Macron-led centrist alliance Ensemble, it counted. Candidates had until 6pm local time to withdraw.

The interior ministry was not immediately available to respond to a request to confirm those numbers.

“We have one objective today, to deny an absolute majority to the National Rally,” said François Ruffin of the hard-left France Unbowed party that is part of the New Popular Front alliance along with French greens, Socialists and Communists.