France faces specter of parliamentary chaos
PARIS—France voted on Sunday in a parliamentary runoff election with the far-right National Rally (RN) bidding for power but likely to fall short of a majority, raising the specter of a chaotic hung parliament.
A hung parliament would severely dent President Emmanuel Macron’s authority and herald a prolonged period of instability and policy deadlock in the euro zone’s second biggest economy.
Should the nationalist, euroskeptic RN secure a majority, it would usher in France’s first far-right government since World War Two and send shock waves through the European Union at a time populist parties are strengthening support across the continent.
Opinion polls forecast Marine Le Pen’s RN will emerge the dominant force in the National Assembly as voters punish Macron over a cost of living crisis and being out of touch with the hardships people face.
However, the RN is seen failing to reach the 289-seat target that would outright hand Le Pen’s 28-year-old protégé s the prime minister’s job with a working majority.
The far right’s projected margin of victory has narrowed since Macron’s centrist Together alliance and the left-wing New Popular Front (NPF) pulled scores of candidates from three-way races in the second round in a bid to unify the anti-RN vote.
Cliff’s edge
“France is on the cliff edge and we don’t know if we’re going to jump,” Raphael Glucksmann, a member of the European Parliament, told France Inter radio last week. Political violence surged during the short three-week campaign. Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin has said authorities recorded more than 50 physical assaults on candidates and campaigners.
Some luxury boutiques along the Champs Elysees boulevard barricaded windows and Darmanin said he was deploying 30,000 police amid concerns of violent protests should the far-right win.
A longtime pariah for many due to its history of racism and antisemitism, the RN has broadened its support beyond its traditional base along the Mediterranean coast and the deindustrialized north, tapping into voter anger at Macron over straitened household budgets, security and immigration worries.
“French people have a real desire for change,” Le Pen told TF1 TV on Wednesday.
