France has fallen.
The first round of voting in France did not favor the conservative forces as initially believed.
Marine Le Pen’s right-wing National Rally (RN), despite a strong showing in early polls, secured a significant but not dominant position, only to be overtaken dramatically in the second round, according to exit polls.
The elections, which saw a high voter turnout, initially suggested a possible conservative sweep with the RN at the forefront.
PBS reported:
The first round on June 30 saw the largest gains ever for the nationalist National Rally, which came out on top.
Over 49 million people are registered to vote in the elections, that will determine which party controls the 577-member National Assembly, France’s influential lower house of parliament, and who will be prime minister. If support is further eroded for Macron’s weak centrist majority, he will be forced to share power with parties opposed to most of his pro-business, pro-European Union policies.
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The outcome remains highly uncertain. Polls between the two rounds suggest that the National Rally may win the most seats in the National Assembly but fall short of the 289 seats needed for a majority.
If it does win a majority, France would have its first far-right government since World War II, with 28-year-old party leader Jordan Bardella as prime minister.
If no party gets a majority, that would mean a hung parliament. The National Rally could try to form a coalition — though it has no natural partners among centrists and leftists — or Macron could try to pursue one with the center-left or name a technocratic government with no political affiliations.
No matter what happens, Macron’s centrist camp will be forced to share power — including possibly with a prime minister who deeply disagrees with the president’s domestic and foreign policies, in an awkward arrangement known in France as “cohabitation.”
However, it seems the expected conservative surge has been thwarted by a left-wing alliance during the second run-off vote.
According to exit polls, Marine Le Pen’s National Rally party is projected to win between 132-152 seats. In contrast, the left-wing alliance New Popular Front is expected to secure between 172-192 seats. A coalition government between Macron and the New Popular Front appears likely.
Euro News reported:
The left-wing alliance the New Popular Front has come first in French legislative elections, but failed to obtain a majority of lawmakers needed to control the National Assembly, according to an exit poll.
The predictions from Ipsos represent a setback for the far-right National Rally (RN) – which saw its hopes of an absolute majority shattered by tactical voting and candidates strategically withdrawing.
The New Popular Front (NFP), a hastily formed coalition of socialists, communists, greens and the leftist France Unbowed party, is set to take between 172 and 192 of the chamber’s 577 seats, Ipsos predicted.
It’s followed by the Ensemble coalition of President Emmanuel Macron – which Ipsos predicts will get 150-170 seats, a significant fall from the 245 it gained in the most recent 2022 elections.
Despite topping the polls in a first round held on 30 June, Marine Le Pen’s RN National Rally likely came third with 132-152 seats, which, if confirmed, would dash hopes of installing Jordan Bardella as Prime Minister.
Reacting to this surprising development, Sky News European correspondent Adam Parsons described an atmosphere of “absolute shock” in France and at the RN headquarters.
“The coalition of the left and the center, who decided to withdraw candidates simply to thwart Marine Le Pen, has worked,” Parsons said.
This concerning development comes after the leftist Labour Party won the United Kingdom’s general election in a landslide, and their leader, Keir Starmer, will become Prime Minister.
The post Communist Revolution Continues: Far-Left ‘New Popular Front’ Set to Dominate French Parliament — Right Wing Party Ends Up in Third Place, Exit Polls Show appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
