French President Emmanuel Macron and the left worked out a way to prevent Marine Le Pen’s party from winning the election by withdrawing some of the candidates.
Jean-Luc Mélenchon agreed to become Macron’s ally, as the president counted on left-wing support for his party in the second round of parliamentary elections.
The left-wing bloc faces the task of preventing Le Pen from winning and gaining a majority in the lower house of parliament. It has therefore decided to withdraw many of the candidates who came in third. As a result, voters can cast their ballots for the second person who will be able to compete with Le Pen’s candidates.
Some 155-180 candidates withdrew from the second round of snap elections in the hope that National Rally’s chances of gaining a majority in the lower house after the vote could diminish.
Mélenchon, founder of France Insubordinate stated immediately after the end of the first round of elections that National Rally should not receive a single vote.
In the first round of parliamentary elections in France, Le Pen’s national-oriented National Rally party received 33.4% of the vote. The left-wing New Popular Front came second with 27.98 per cent of the vote. Meanwhile, Macron’s coalition won just 20.76 per cent.
Le Pen stated on Tuesday that the president of the National Rally would only head the government if the party won an absolute majority in the second round of legislative elections on Sunday.
We cannot accept going into government if we cannot act. It would be the worst betrayal of our voters.
Although the National Rally won the majority of votes in the first round of the snap election, they are still not enough to claim overall victory.
French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal stated that the presidential coalition would withdraw its candidates from the run-off election to give other candidates a chance to defeat the candidates of the National Rally Party.
