After a promising first-round lead, France’s right-wing National Rally party came up short in the second round of the country’s legislative election. It ultimately came in third for seats in the National Assembly, France’s lower house, behind left-wing coalition New Popular Front (NFP) and French President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist alliance, Ensemble.
More than 300 contests in the first round proceeded to a three-way runoff involving National Rally, the NFP, and Ensemble. If those three-way races had gone ahead, National Rally had a decent chance of winning a majority in the second round. In response to that threat, more than 200 candidates from both Ensemble and NFP withdrew from those three-way races ahead of the second round to prevent splitting the vote and giving the victory to National Rally. In some instances, Macron had to pressure Ensemble candidates to drop out to give the advantage to NFP candidates.
So the leftists and centrists colluded to game France’s electoral system and ensure the right-wing party had no chance at power.
No single party won an outright majority in this election, so the nation will require a governing coalition. The National Assembly requires 289 seats for a majority. The NFP won 182 seats, Ensemble 163, National Rally 143, and The Republicans (France’s center-right party) just 39.
Even though National Rally improved 18-plus points over its performance in the 2022 legislative election, there’s almost no chance it makes it into the new government. The level of cooperation during the election makes an NFP-Ensemble
