Le Pen's far right wins French first round and targets majority

Marine Le Pen’s National Rally dominated the first round of France’s legislative election and set its sights on an absolute majority as President Emmanuel Macron and her other opponents began strategizing to keep the far-right party out of power.

The National Rally was projected to get between 33% and 34.2% of the vote, according to projections from five polling companies on Sunday. The left-wing New Popular Front coalition was set to get between 28.5% and 29.6% and Macron’s centrist alliance between 20.3% and 22.4%.

Even though Macron’s presidency isn’t formally at stake – and he’s said he has no plans to resign – Sunday’s result indicates he’ll likely have to share governing responsibilities with Le Pen’s group, which opposes most of his priorities, from migration and pension reform to strengthening the European Union.

Speaking at an event in her constituency in northern France, Le Pen told supporters that Macron’s party had been “practically wiped out.”

“The second round will be decisive,” she said. “To lead the reforms that the country needs, we need an absolute majority.”

The euro was quoted marginally higher against the dollar as currency markets opened in Sydney.

The focus now will turn to whether the National Rally and its president, Jordan Bardella, can garner enough support in the second round of voting next Sunday to get an absolute majority in the National Assembly, which would allow it to easily pass legislation and bat down attempts to bring down the government.

The National Rally has said that it won’t lead the next government unless it has full control of the legislature. If it falls short, France could be looking at an extended period of gridlock.

The National Rally would need 289 lawmakers to have an absolute majority in the 577-seat lower house. But the electoral calculus gets complicated in the runoff when parties can strategically withhold candidates in certain constituencies to give a boost to a centrist hopeful.

Jean-Luc Melenchon of the New Popular Front said the vote was coming down to a competition between the left and the right, but also indicated tactical decisions could be used to bolster the center. He said in some cases where his group is in last place, it would pull out, in practice helping whichever party was best-placed to defeat Le Pen’s candidate.

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