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French President Emmanual Macron’s allies are divided as they attempt to prevent a landslide victory from the far-right.
Gabriel Attal, the prime minister under Mr Macron’s centrist coalition, urged party candidates to drop out of races where they were in third-place behind the left-wing party New Popular Front (NFP) and Marine Le Pen’s National Rally (RN).
Meanwhile, finance Minister Bruno Le Maire ruled out calling on voters to choose a far-left candidate from the France Unbowed (LFI) party – a member of the NFP coalition.
Mr Macron has found himself caught in the cross-fire proposing a “wide-ranging rally behind republican and democratic” candidates for the second round.
The mixed signals from Mr Macron’s allies come as they attempt to stave off a resurgence of the far-right, which made historic gains in the first round of France’s parliamentary election.
The RN and allies won 33 per cent of the vote, followed by a leftwing bloc with 28 per cent and Mr Macron’s centrists with just 20 per cent.
This is a huge setback for Mr Macron who called the snap election after his party suffered a crushing defeat by Ms Le Pen’s outfit in European Parliament elections last month.
Mr Attal, the 35-year-old prime minister, urged for tactical voting amid the chaos.
He said “not one single vote” should go to the National Rally. “The stakes are clear: to prevent the National Rally from having an absolute majority.”
The division ensued when Mr Le Maire branded the left-wing LFI party a “danger”.
“For me, France Unbowed (LFI) is a danger for the nation, just as the National Rally is a danger for the Republic,” he told France Inter radio.
Mr Le Maire added that while he would encourage voters to pick candidates from other leftwing parties in places where a centrist candidate pulled out, he’d “never” call for voting LFI.
But Marine Tondelier, a senior member of the Greens within the NFP alliance, told the same radio station minutes later she was “absolutely floored” by Mr Le Maire’s stance, calling it “cowardly and privileged”.
The LFI’s Éric Coquerel also accused Mr Macron’s centrists of playing into Le Pen’s hands, saying “all those who continue in the former majority to put a line of equality between the LFI and the RN affirm that for them, giving the RN a majority isn’t a problem”.
Jean-Luc Mélenchon, leader of LFI, said the left alliance would withdraw all its candidates who came third in the first round, adding: “Our guideline is simple and clear: not a single more vote for the National Rally.”
Whether the anti-immigrant, eurosceptic RN can form a government will depend now on how successfully other parties manage to thwart Ms Le Pen by rallying around the best-placed rival candidates in hundreds of constituencies across France.
Mr Macron is due to plot electoral strategy with senior aides at a closed-door meeting at his Elysee Palace later on Monday, as similar tactics have previously worked in 2017 and 2022.
Ipsos analyst Mathieu Gallard calculated that the first round had left potential for three-way contests in 306 of the 577 seats to be fought over in France’s National Assembly, underlining the scale of the uncertainty still remaining.
The RN, a longtime political pariah in France, is now closer to power than it has ever been.
Ms Le Pen has sought to clean up the image of a party known for racism and antisemitism, a ploy that has worked amid voter anger at Macron, the high cost of living and growing concerns over immigration.
The far-right party stands a good chance of winning a majority in the lower house of parliament for the first time, but the outcome remains uncertain amid the complex voting system and potential for tactical voting.
The main alternative scenario to an RN-led government would be a hung parliament potentially making France ungovernable for the remainder of Macron’s presidency, which is due to run until 2027.
Jordan Bardella, who could become prime minister if RN wins a majority, said he intends to work with Macron and “to be a cohabitation prime minister who is respectful of the Constitution and of the President of the Republic’s role but uncompromising about the policies we will implement.”
He has also described the far-left as “an existential threat” to France.
RN lawmakers, meanwhile, urged centre-right politicians in the Republicans (LR) party, which received less than 7 per cent of the first-round vote, to withdraw from districts where such a move would work in RN’s favour.
Dozens of candidates who won at least 50 per cent of Sunday’s vote were elected outright. All the other races head to a second round on 7 July involving two or three top candidates.
