*** 7/7/24 - French Left Alliance Wins Most Seats, Far Right Fails to Carry First-Round Victory................
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Far-right parties were only able to convert 143 seats, still an
French Left Alliance Wins Most Seats, Far Right Fails to Carry First-Round Victory
By Tom FevrierMarie Patino PoliticsPublished: July 7, 2024 | Updated: July 7, 2024On Sunday July 7, France elected 577 members of the National Assembly, the country’s lower house of parliament. In a turnaround from the first round of voting, a coalition of left-wing parties, the New Popular Front, won the most seats but fell short of an absolute majority.
Voters went back to the polls a week after handing Marine Le Pen and her far right party, the National Rally, an emphatic victory in the first round of the legislative election.
In the days following the results, the New Popular Front and President Emmanuel Macron’s party pulled candidates who were ranking third in an attempt to consolidate votes against the far right. That was enough to secure 178 seats for the left alliance and 156 for Macron’s centrist bloc, according to the Interior Ministry.
Far-right parties were only able to convert 143 seats, still an increase from 90 held in the National Assembly dissolved by President Emmanuel Macron on June 9.
Geographic Splits
The left alliance and Macron’s group of centrist parties were able to consolidate support against the far right in western France and urban areas like Paris.
The National Rally has been most popular in low density, rural areas of France. In mining areas in Northern France, Le Pen’s party also gathered the most votes, with Le Pen herself re-elected directly in the first round with 58% of votes from the Pas-de-Calais department’s 11th constituency.
Three-Way Races
In total, seventy-six candidates were elected in the first round of voting, receiving over 50% of valid votes and 25% of the registered electorate. In the other 501 constituencies, all candidates whose vote count exceeded 12.5% of registered voters qualified for the second round.
Last Sunday’s vote saw the highest number of three-way races in French voting history — before candidates withdrawals — and voters were expected to choose from three candidates or more in 62% of contests.
A candidate withdrew in 98% of contests where Le Pen’s party and allies were leading above Macron’s centrist alliance and the New Popular Front, reducing the number of three-way races from 306 to 89.
Party Forces
Macron created his party in 2016 and reshuffled the French political landscape by weakening its two legacy parties — the Republicans, formerly known as the UMP, and the Socialist Party. The UMP went from 194 seats in 2012 to 112 in 2017, dwindling down to less than 50 this year. The fall was harder for former Socialist President Francois Hollande who didn’t seek re-election in 2017 as he was confronted with record low approval rating. The Socialist Party dwindled from 280 seats in 2012 to 30 seats in 2017.
The Socialist Party, Green Party, France Unbowed and the Communist Party formed an alliance in 2022 called the New Ecological and Social People’s Union (NUPES) and turned to the same strategy this election by forming a coalition called the New Popular Front. This enabled the alliance to garner nearly a third of seats in the National Assembly.
Edited by Michael Ovaska