Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally (RN) party scored historic gains to win the first round of France’s parliamentary election, but the final outcome will depend on days of alliance-building before next week’s run-off vote. The RN and allies had 33% of the vote, followed by a leftwing bloc with 28% and President Emmanuel Macron’s centrists with just 20%, official results from the interior ministry showed on Monday. That was a huge setback for Macron who had called the snap election after his ticket was trounced by the RN in European Parliament elections last month. But whether the anti-immigrant, eurosceptic RN will be able to form a government will depend on next week’s decisive round and how successfully other parties manage to thwart Le Pen by rallying round the best-placed rival candidates in constituencies across France. Leaders of both the leftwing New Popular Front and Macron’s centrist alliance made clear on Sunday night they would withdraw their own candidates in districts where another candidate was better placed to beat the RN in next Sunday’s runoff. A longtime pariah for many in France, the RN is now closer to power than it has ever been. For in-depth analysis and a deeper perspective on this historic win for the French far right, FRANCE 24 is joined by Dr Anna McKeever, Lecturer in Political Sciences at the University of the West of Scotland.
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