French PM Urges Calm after Assaults in Run-up to Second Round Vote

THE GUARDIAN: Gabriel Attal’s call comes on tense last day of campaigning after more than 50 candidates and canvassers attacked

The French prime minister, Gabriel Attal, has urged all political parties to call for calm on a tense last day of campaigning for a snap election in which the far right hopes to win a majority in parliament.

“Violence and intimidation have no place in our society,” Attal wrote in a social media post.

The interior minister, Gérald Darmanin, said: “This campaign is short and yet we already have 51 candidates, substitutes and activists who have been physically assaulted.” » | Angelique Chrisafis in Paris | Friday, July 5, 2024

France’s Far Right Celebrates Lead after First Round of Parliamentary Elections | BBC News

Jul 1, 2024 | France’s far right is in pole position after the first round of parliamentary elections that confirmed their dominance in French politics.

Supporters of Marine Le Pen’s anti-immigration National Rally (RN) cheered as she said the president’s “Macronist bloc has been all but wiped out”. RN won 33.1% of the vote, with a left-wing alliance behind on 28%, and the Macron camp behind on 20.76%.

This marks the first time the far right has won the first round of a French parliamentary election. “I aim to be prime minister for all the French people, if the French give us their votes,” said 28-year-old RN party leader Jordan Bardella.

French Elections Results: Could Le Pen's National Rally Win an Absolute Majority?

Jul 1, 2024 | The first round of France's legislative elections resulted in an emphatic victory for Marine Le Pen's far right party National Rally, which has set its sights on an absolute majority. Bloomberg's Caroline Connan reports.

French Far Right Wins Big in First Round of Voting

THE NEW YORK TIMES: A surprise decision by President Emmanuel Macron to hold a snap election appears to have backfired badly, giving the National Rally a decisive victory.

Marine Le Pen, leader of the National Rally, giving a speech Sunday evening in Hénin-Beaumont, France. | Francois Lo Presti/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
The National Rally party on Sunday won a crushing victory in the first round of voting for the French National Assembly, bringing its long-taboo brand of nationalist and anti-immigrant politics to the threshold of power for the first time.

Official results published by the Interior Ministry showed that the party and its allies won about 33 percent of the vote, far ahead of President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist Renaissance party and its allies, which took about 20 percent to end in third place.

A coalition of left-wing parties, called the New Popular Front, won about 28 percent of the vote. Ranging from the moderate socialists to the far-left France Unbowed, the coalition was boosted by strong support among young people. » | Roger Cohen, Reporting from Paris | Sunday, June 30, 2024

Le Pen Set to Humiliate Macron in French Elections

Jun 30, 2024 | Marine Le Pen’s National Rally and its allies could win control of the French parliament in a humiliation for President Macron, final polls indicate before the first round of voting on Sunday. This would open the way for her protégé, Jordan Bardella, 28, to become the country’s youngest prime minister after the run-off next Sunday, ushering in a period of so-called cohabitation that would curb Macron’s powers during the final three years of his presidency.

Polls Predict ‘Extremely Bad Result’ for Macron’s Centrist Party as National Rally ‘Widens Lead’

Jun 30, 2024 | “The National Rally has actually widened its lead over Macron’s party and its allies since the European elections.”

President Macron’s centrist political coalition is currently polling in third place, behind an alliance of leftist parties in second place and Marine Le Pen’s National Rally in first place, says The Times reporter David Chazan.

Will Macron’s Snap Election Gamble Backfire? | DW News

June 28, 2024 | France goes to the polls on Sunday in snap parliamentary elections. President Emmanuel Macron called the vote in response to his party's dismal showing in the European elections earlier this month. It's a gamble for Macron. He hopes to see off right-wing opponents - but may end up losing power. We spoke to DW’s correspondent Sonia Phalnikar in Paris about what's at stake for France.

French Election: Le Pen Vows to Work with Macron If She Wins

Jun 17, 2024 | Far-right leader Marine Le Pen said she won’t try to push out President Emmanuel Macron if she wins France’s snap parliamentary election in an appeal to moderates and investors. Her group, the National Rally, is already on track to become the biggest party in the lower house, a prospect which has caused alarm among investors, France’s international partners and a section of the French public. Bloomberg's Stephen Carroll reports.

French Election Opens Up as Marine Le Pen Surges

THE NEW YORK TIMES: President Emmanuel Macron’s belated entry into the campaign and his focus on Ukraine have left him vulnerable to a strong challenge from the right.

PARIS — At last, Emmanuel Macron stepped forth. The French president entered a vast arena this weekend, plunged into darkness and lit only by spotlights and glow sticks, before a crowd of 30,000 supporters in a domed stadium in the Paris suburbs.

It was a highly choreographed appearance — his first campaign rally for an election now less than a week away — with something of the air of a rock concert. But Mr. Macron had come to sound an alarm.

Do not think “it’s all decided, that it’s all going to go well,” he told the crowd, a belated acknowledgment that a presidential election that had seemed almost certain to return him to power is suddenly wide open.

The diplomatic attempt to end the war in Ukraine has been time-consuming for Mr. Macron, so much so that he has had little time for the French election, only to awaken to the growing danger that France could lurch to the anti-immigrant right, with its Moscow-friendly politics and its skepticism of NATO.

Marine Le Pen, the hard-right leader making her third attempt to gain power, has surged over the past couple of weeks, as her patient focus on cost-of-living issues has resonated with the millions of French people struggling to make ends meet after an increase of more than 35 percent in gas prices over the past year. » | Roger Cohen | Monday, April 4, 2022

The Observer view on the French election and rightwing populism: Emmanuel Macron is expected to win but voter support for Marine Le Pen shows the threat of the far right must be tackled »

Landslide: Where Will Macron's Momentum Lead France? (Parts 1 & 2)

French Legislatives: Does the French Working Class Care about Europe?

Macron Scolds RT, Sputnik for Coverage of French Election

Read the Washington Post article here

What Is At Stake in the French Election?

May. 06, 2017 - 3:42 - James Kirchick provides insight

Emmanuel Macron Confronted by Union Activists in Albi While Le Pen Dodges Eggs in Brittany

Will Marine Le Pen Triumph in the French Elections?

Marine Le Pen and her party, Front national, have tapped into nationwide anxieties over Islam and the European Union. On the eve of the French elections, we consider why French voters have shifted to the right, and what hope the National Front party gives them of a new France.

French Election: What Would Emmanuel Macron's Presidency Mean for Britain? - BBC Newsnight

Centrist Emmanuel Macron will face far-right leader Marine Le Pen in the second round of the French presidential election.To learn more about the presidential candidate, Evan Davis has met up with Benjamin Griveaux, Mr Macron's campaign spokesman.

French Election: In Search of 'la France profonde' - BBC Newsnight

Much of the attention of the French presidential election has been on Paris and other large metropolitan areas, where the issues of terrorism and immigration have been felt most keenly. But it's outside the capital that the election is really decided. Gabriel Gatehouse has gone in search of France's political and geographic heart.

Champs-Elysées Attack: What Impact on Sunday's French Election?

‘Frexit’ Concerns ahead of French Election

Five days before the first round of the French presidential election the candidates are frantically canvassing for votes.

France's Topsy-Turvy Election: Uncertain Outcome as Insurgents Blow Away Old Guard (Parts 1 & 2)