The first round of French legislative elections ends with an almost tie between Ensemble!, the coalition led by the President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron, and Nupes, the left-wing alliance gathered around Jean-Luc Mélenchon. The result delivered by the ballot box is unprecedented: Ensembles! got 25,75% of the vote, just 0,09% more than Nudes (25,66%). In numbers, this is a gap of just 21.400 votes. It is the first time in the history of the Fifth Republic, he points out Le Figaro, that the party of the Head of State is not clearly in the lead in the first round.
At this juncture, abstention has reached a new record historic, settling at 52,49% (in 2017 it had been 51,3%).
French legislative elections: the polls on the June 19 runoff
What will happen now? The final battle will take place on Sunday, June 19, when it takes place the second round of the French legislative elections. According to survey institutes, Macron would be ahead in the projections of 577 seats, with a range included between 255 and 295 seats, while Nupes could obtain between 150 and 210 seats. It will therefore only be revealed on Sunday evening whether Ensamble! he will manage to reach the 289 seats necessary for an absolute majority, avoiding having to forge alliances with other groups (the most probable is with the neo-Gaullists according to the French press) to approve the most important points of his programme, first of all the pension reform .
"The truth is that the presidential party is beaten and defeated“, said Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who called on the “people” to “riot next Sunday” in the voting booths.
"The majority resist, is present in a large proportion of constituencies. If it's fragile to be slightly in the lead, I don't quite understand what fragility is,” commented French government spokeswoman Olivia Grégoire in an interview with Rtl.
The results of the other parties
As for the other parties, National Gathering by Marine Le Pen stopped at 18,6%, a disappointing result if we take into account the 40% obtained by Le Pen in the last presidential elections. They follow Les Republicains (11,3%) and Erik Zemmour's “Reconquete” (4,1%). With these results, according to the calculations of Ipsos-Sopra Steria for Le Monde, the neo-Gaullists could reach 50-80 deputies, becoming a possible "crutch" for Macron if the President's coalition fails to reach an absolute majority. As for Marine Le Pen, despite her having obtained a higher share of the vote, RN could have between 20 and 45 seats.
