French President Emmanuel Macron called for snap legislative polls immediately after his camp received a drubbing in European polls last month. Yet his gamble appears to have backfired dramatically, with the far-right National Rally (RN) of Marine Le Pen scoring a victory in the June 30 first round with more than 10.6 million votes. Faced with the prospect of the far right taking power in France for the first time since the country's occupation by Nazi Germany during World War II, Macron's camp and the left have urged a broad "Republican Front" to stop the anti-immigration and eurosceptic party of Le Pen. The rivals are hoping that putting their differences aside ahead of the runoff with tactical withdrawals will prevent the RN winning an absolute majority of 289 seats in the 577-seat National Assembly. With a hung parliament the most likely outcome, as Macron and the French left scramble to block the far right from seizing an absolute majority, FRANCE 24's Genie Godula is joined by Paul Smith, Associate Professor in French History and Politics at the University of Nottingham.
