France’s Rassemblement Nationale made historic gains in the first round of snap elections on Sunday. But their progress is greater in smaller towns and rural areas than in major cities. RFI examines what the map of France looks like as the three leading parties prepare to do battle in next Sunday’s second round.
Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella’s party topped the poll with 33.15 per cent of the vote, ahead of the left-wing New Popular Front (FNP) alliance with 28.14 per cent and President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist Ensemble coalition with 20.76 per cent.
The RN and its allies received about 9.3 million votes, more than double the figure for the previous parliamentary election in 2022. It reached the second round in 455 of France’s 577 constituencies and won in 297 of them.
Compared to 2022, the RN increased its vote share in all constituencies except the French Pacific territory of New Caledonia, where it won just 4.6 per cent of the vote.
Campaigning on a promise to boost purchasing power by cutting VAT on fuel and some essentials, the RN did best in the northern Hauts-de-France region. Thirty-nine RN candidates won enough votes (more than 50 per cent) in the first round to take their seats directly, and 17 of them were in this northern “rust belt.”
Among them were Marine Le Pen, re-elected with 58.04 per cent of the vote in the northern town of Hénin-Beaumont in the former coal-mining region, and RN vice-president Sébastien Chenu.
Communist Party leader Fabien Roussel, running on the FNP list, lost his seat to the RN candidate in a constituency that has been a Communist stronghold for more than 60 years.
Biggest gains were in the southeast
The RN made its biggest gains in the southeastern Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region, which includes the cities of Marseille and Nice, as well as the seaside resorts of Cannes and Saint-Tropez.
The region has historically been a stronghold of the Front National (as the RN was called until 2018).
Founded by Jean-Marie Le Pen in 1972 to foster nostalgia for France’s colonial past, the Front National found support among the so-called “black pieds” – former French settlers in Algeria who were forced to leave the country after its independence from France in 1962. Many have settled in cities such as Marseille and Nice.
Eric Ciotti, a Conservative Republican MP who backed a controversial pact with the RN that split his party, won the Nice election in a constituency where the RN increased its rating by 24 points over 2022.
In the Mediterranean port city of Marseille, votes in most constituencies were split into three groups: between the RN, leftists and centrists, with the RN leading in half of them.
NFP is strong in the Paris region
However, the centre of Marseille favoured the far-left Unbowed France party – the largest party in the NFP alliance – with party coordinator Manuel Bompard with 67.49 per cent. NFP candidates qualified in 446 of the 577 constituencies, performing best in and around Paris. They came out on top in 13 of Paris’ 18 constituencies.
The cosmopolitan French capital is traditionally left-wing and all RN candidates were eliminated in the first round. Nine RN candidates were directly elected, including six women, three of whom were from the Green Party.
In two constituencies in the working-class Paris suburb of Saint-Saint-Denis, home to a large immigrant population, FNP candidates won more than 70 per cent of the vote.
The Left Alliance also did well in the cities of Nantes, Toulouse and Strasbourg.
However, the election failed in the former industrial northeast, as well as in the Maas and Aube regions, where candidates failed to reach the second round.
Presidential alliance shaken but not destroyed
Macron’s centrist Ensemble coalition reached the second round in 319 constituencies, down from 417 in 2022. Ensemble candidates won in 69 constituencies, five of which are in Paris.
It still has influence in the western part of the capital, in the west of France, for example in the departments of Maine and Loire, and in the south of the Averon countryside.
But it has lost ground across the country, scoring poorly in areas where the RN and LFP performed well – especially in Saint-Saint-Denis and Pas-de-Calais. Its candidates received less than 10 per cent of the vote on Sunday in several constituencies in those areas.
Only two Ensemble candidates – one in the Hauts-de-Seine department west of Paris and the other in Wallis and Futuna – were directly elected.
A total of 185 candidates withdrew from the French election to prevent the “Rassemblement Nationale” from winning, Le Monde reports.
Contenders from the presidential Ensemble coalition and from the left-wing New Popular Front bloc withdrew to prevent the right-wing party from gaining a majority.
After the first day of voting in more than 300 constituencies, candidates from the three main blocs of the right, left and Macronists made it to the second round. Under Macron’s plan, candidates from his coalition and from the left-wing bloc who came third in their constituency in the first round should drop out of the second round to block the right-wing. The votes of their voters should go to the second-place candidate.
Macron frightens France with election results
Earlier, Macron has warned fellow citizens in his Génération Do It Yourself podcast that a victory by his opponents in the National Assembly elections could lead to a civil war in the country.
The French leader believes that the plans of both right and left political blocs will create problems in society. What he fears most is the victory of the National Rally which came first in the European Parliament elections. Macron said the party’s policies “refer people to either religion or origin, which is why they are dividing the people and pushing for civil war.”
Meanwhile, riots have broken out in France following snap elections that threaten to disrupt preparations for the 2024 Olympics.
