Can French centrist parties keep far right out in second round of voting?
Al Jazeera
Far-right National Rally’s hopes of an absolute majority may be dashed by tactical manoeuvring, but threat still looms.
France is days away from the second round of snap legislative polls called by President Emmanuel Macron after his centrist camp was trounced in European elections last month.
The far-right National Rally (RN) cruised to victory with 33 percent of the vote in the first round of voting last Sunday. But its hopes of winning an absolute majority have been dented after left-wing and centrist parties conspired to throw it off course by standing down candidates in some constituencies where votes could be split in the second round of polls on Sunday, July 7.
Faced with the prospect of the far right taking power for the first time since the Nazis occupied the country during World War II, parties from the left and centre have aligned in a so-called “Republican Front” to block the far right.
By Tuesday night, following frantic cross-party discussions, more than 200 left and centrist candidates had pulled out of constituency races in which they had finished in third place, hence averting any risk of the anti-RN vote being split in the final face-off.
On Sunday, French voters now face a binary choice between the leftists and centrists of the Republican Front on the one hand, and a far-right party rooted in xenophobia with a marked authoritarian bent on the other, in those constituencies.
