In a shocking first round of voting for the French National Assembly, the anti-immigration National Rally party, led by Marine Le Pen, secured a decisive victory in exit polls with 34% of the vote.
The result brings the nationalist party with an anti-Semitic history closer to power than ever before, and could set the stage for Le Pen’s protege, a 28-year-old right wing leader, Jordan Bardella, to become prime minister after a second round of voting on July 7.
France’s prime minister is currently Gabriel Attal, who made history when he was appointed by Macron in January, becoming the first openly gay holder of the office. Attal, now 35, is currently the youngest head of government in the world.
A Bardella victory would mark the first far-right leadership in France since the Vichy regime during WWII, a period when France, under Philippe Pétain and Pierre Laval, collaborated with Nazi Germany.
The snap election, called by Pres. Emmanuel Macron, appears to have backfired. His centrist Renaissance party garnered only 21%, trailing the left-wing New Popular Front, which secured 29%. With high voter turnout over 65%, the significance of this election is clear.
While the first round results don’t guarantee the National Rally an absolute majority in the Assembly, it is poised to become the largest force, signaling a potential shift in French politics on the eve of the Olympics in France, replacing Macron’s pro-Europe, pro-business stance with a populist, Euro-skeptic, and anti-immigration agenda.
If successful in the next round of voting, National Rally would dominate the legislative landscape, limiting Macron’s influence despite his presidency lasting until 2027.
Macron has vowed not to resign but would struggle to stop the implementation of nationalist policies under an arrangement known in France as “cohabitation,” where the president and the prime minister are from different parties.
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