The French voted in the first round of the legislative elections this Sunday, June 30. Did the left-wing union succeed in its bet to qualify in almost all of the 577 constituencies?
The first results of the New Popular Front are in: according to the first partial results, the union of the main left-wing parties, decreed on June 10, the day after the European elections that led to President Emmanuel Macron’s decision to dissolve the National Assembly, obtained 28.5% of the votes at the end of this first round this Sunday according to the first Ifop estimates for TF1 and LCI. As the polls announced, this coalition came in second place in the election, behind the National Rally (34.5% of the votes) but ahead of the presidential majority party (22.5%).
The Popular Front, joined by the vast majority of emblematic figures of La France Insoumise, the Socialist Party, Europe Ecology the Greens and the French Communist Party, managed to present a common program which seems to have convinced many French people to believe these first partial results. However, there was no dazzling breakthrough against the National Rally.
The New Popular Front had a hard time competing with the National Rally in this first round. But the left could nevertheless benefit during the second round of these legislative elections from hypothetical barriers to the RN to impose itself in certain constituencies. It is almost certain that candidates from Divers Gauche will call for a vote against the RN on July 7, on the other hand, a certain vagueness remains about those from the presidential majority in the event of a duel between the extreme right and the united left since the tendency at Renaissance is “neither RN nor LFI”.
Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s party is considered by the vast majority of the centrist voices, who were raised in this campaign, as a far-left party, judged even by the latter as “outside the republican field”. It is on this subject that the equation of the results of these legislative elections is played out for the left: what will be the reserve of votes for the PS, EELV, PCF or LFI candidates?
Before the results of the first round, projections allocated between 150 and 200 deputy seats to representatives of the Popular Front. This is very far from the score required to obtain an absolute majority – set at 289 seats – but the NFP can still hope to obtain a relative majority at the end of the second round. Indeed, the National Rally will undoubtedly have difficulty finding allies between two rounds of legislative elections. In this case, the united left can still dream of a coalition that could allow it to govern in a few weeks. Which would be a first since the Cazeneuve government in 2017, under the presidency of socialist François Hollande.