For many, France appears to be a very different place on Monday.
The results of the first round of the legislative electionsheld on Sunday, revealed a deeply fractured country, with a growing far right winning a record number of votes and causing the near collapse of President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist party.
“The far right at the gates of power,” headlined Le Parisien, the day after the first half of the early poll called by Mr. Macron.
“Twelve million of our fellow citizens voted for a far-right party that is clearly racist and anti-republican,” the left-wing newspaper Libération said in an editorial, referring to Marine Le Pen’s National Rally. “The head of state threw France under the bus, the bus continued without slowing down, and now it is parked in front of the gates of Matignon,” — Prime Minister’s office.
If the National Rally obtains an absolute majority in the second round on Sunday, Mr Macron will be forced to appoint a prime minister from among its ranks, who will in turn form a cabinet.
Macron’s party, which along with its allies holds the largest number of seats in the National Assembly, but not an absolute majority, has generated a sense of shock and disbelief at the political meltdown. The centrist coalition finished third in the first round of the two-round election race. Only two of its candidates — and none of its ministers seeking a seat — won enough votes to be re-elected without a runoff, compared with 37 members of the far-right National Rally and 32 members of the left-wing coalition of parties called the New Popular Front, which came in second.
The results of the first round of voting generally do not allow us to estimate with certainty the number of seats that each party will obtain in parliament. But the National Rally now seems very likely to become the most important force in the powerful National Assembly. The question is whether he will get enough seats to secure an absolute majority.
If it does not, the National Assembly will most likely be ungovernable, with Mr Macron’s centrist party and its allies squeezed between right and left and with their power greatly diminished.
“End of an era,” declares the front page of Les Echos, the main economic daily.
“When historians look back on the dissolution, they will have only one word: disaster!” declared an editorial in the conservative newspaper Le Figaro.
“Emmanuel Macron had everything, or almost,” he continues. He lost everything. »
On the ground, reactions to the vote reflect the country’s divisions. In the north, considered a stronghold of the far-right National Rally, jubilation reigns.
“I’m going to party all night,” said Manuel Queco, 42, an entrepreneur, in a village hall in the town of Hénin-Beaumont, where Ms. Le Pen received one round of congratulations after another on Sunday evening. , after having been automatically elected. As the crowd of National Rally supporters sang the national anthem, Mr. Queco raised his glass of champagne. “I’ve been waiting for them to win since I was 18.”
In Paris, the first-round results revealed an electoral map that almost entirely obscured the National Rally, but was divided between the New Popular Front and the president’s party. Yet the prevailing sentiment on the Place de la République, where thousands of left-wing supporters gathered Sunday night, was one of sadness and commiseration.
“I never thought I would see this in my life: the far right at the head of the country,” said Camille Hemard, 50, a Latin, Greek and French teacher at a higher preparatory school. She had taken her 16-year-old daughter to seek comfort in the crowd who were dancing and chanting: “Everyone hates fascists.”
She added: “I was hoping my kids wouldn’t find out. »
On radio, television and news sites, pollsters have been warning that the game is not over. Only 76 of the country’s 577 legislative seats have been won outright. A battle for the remaining 501 would ensue this week, leading up to the final vote on Sunday. The question many were asking was how many candidates would drop out of the three-way races in a strategic move aimed at preventing the far right from winning.
Official results published by the Ministry of the Interior showed that the National Rally and its allies won about 33 percent of the vote. Mr. Macron’s centrist Renaissance party and its allies won about 20 percent, and the New Popular Front won about 28 percent of the vote.
Ségolène Le Stradic reporting contributed from Hénin-Beaumont, France.
