Marine Le Pen’s hopes of winning an outright victory in France’s snap election appear to have been dashed as anti-National Rally candidates team up to destroy the populist party.
At least 200 candidates from both the left-wing alliance and Emmanuel Macron’s centrist coalition pulled out of the second round ahead of yesterday’s deadline.
The New Popular Front dropped 130 candidates after qualifying to contest 446 races.
Ensemble only opted to drop 81 candidates, with the centrist coalition qualifying for 319 contests.
Marine Le Pen, French far-right leader and far-right Rassemblement National (National Rally - RN) party candidate, deliver a speech after partial results in the first round of the early French parliamentary elections in Henin-BeaumontREUTERSThe decision could heavily influence the result of Macron’s snap poll, with just 76 out of the 577-strong National Assembly being elected in last weekend’s vote.
National Rally returned 37 MPs, with one ally on a joint ticket with Le Pen also breaking through.
The left-wing New Popular Front trailed behind in a close second on 32.
Macron’s Ensemble is languishing in a distant third with just two MPs as it stands.
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Emmanuel Macron leaves a voting booth, as he visits a polling station to vote in the first round of the early French parliamentary elections, in Le Touquet-Paris-Plage, FranceREUTERSLeft-wing Eurosceptic Jean-Luc Melenchon joined Macron in urging candidates to drop out.
The result of the first round sparked protests across major French cities, including Paris.
Ahead of the candidates' list closing, Macron said: “Let's not be mistaken.
“It's the far-right that's on its way to the highest office, no one else.”
However, Le Pen remains on the offensive and is urging voters to give National Rally an absolute majority which would result in Jordan Bardella becoming Prime Minister.
Marine Le PenREUTERSBardella condemned the arrangement as the fruit of an “alliance of dishonour”.
Figures on the centre-right have also not been as scathing about the National Rally.
Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire and former Prime Minister Edouard Philippe have refused to issue instructions to vote systematically against the populist party.
Les Republicains, for some time the party of governance on the centre-right, ended up in a civil war over Eric Ciotti’s decision to sign an electoral pact with Le Pen.
Despite ex-President Jacques Chirac trouncing Le Pen’s father Jean-Marie in 2002, Ciotti was ousted after Les Republicains executive rejected his alliance with the populist right.