According to the latest count by Le Monde, 224 candidates had withdrawn from the second round of France’s snap legislative elections.
That means that on Sunday there will be 89 three-way races, and two four-way races – as well as 409 two-person runoffs.
Gabriel Attal, the prime minister, has said that nationwide efforts to prevent Marine Le Pen’s National Rally (RN) winning an outright majority in parliament could succeed. “We can avoid an absolute majority for the far right,” he said.
François Hollande, a former French president from the socialist party, has said that the New Popular Front has allowed to “rebalance” the left.
Sandrine Rousseau, from the Ecologists, said she is opposed to a coalition with members of Macron’s camp.
A poll by Ifop has found that 37% of French voters want the National Rally to win an absolute majority of seats in the national assembly on Sunday.
France’s prime minister has said nationwide efforts to prevent Marine Le Pen’s National Rally (RN) winning an outright majority in parliament could succeed, after more than 200 candidates pulled out of Sunday’s legislative election runoff to avoid splitting the anti-far-right vote.
“We can avoid an absolute majority for the far right,” Gabriel Attal said on Wednesday, adding that 90% of candidates from President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist camp had quit three-way races if they were in third with an RN candidate ahead of them.
Attal said centrist candidates were right to stand down even in favour of a rival from the radical-left France Unbowed (LFI), part of the NFP leftwing alliance. “Neither LFI or NFP can win an absolute majority,” he said. “RN can.”
He added: “What’s at stake is to do everything so that the extreme right does not have an absolute majority. It is not nice for some French to have to block … by voting in a way they did not want to. I say it’s our responsibility to do this.”
A local left-wing political supporter (L) distributes campaign leaflets for the Nouveau Front Populaire (NFP) at the entrance of a metro station in a working-class neighbourhood in Toulouse, southwestern France on July 2. Photograph: Matthieu Rondel/AFP/Getty Images
France's former Health Minister and candidate of left-wing "Nouveau Front Populaire" (New Popular Front - NFP) Aurelien Rousseau (L) poses with a local resident during a campaign visit at a local market in Chanteloup-les-Vignes, north of Paris, on July 3. Photograph: Geoffroy van der Hasselt/AFP/Getty Images
Candidate of the Together coalition and former Prime minister Elisabeth Borne (C) holds leaflets during a campaign visit at a market in Villers Bocage, northwestern France, on July 3. Photograph: Lou Benoist/AFP/Getty Images
A tale of two elections: how angry voters in France and UK turned on their leaders
Jon Henley
It was raining in Calais on election day. A thin, penetrating, miserable drizzle blowing in off the Channel that was entirely in keeping with the mood of a great many voters as they headed to the polls in France’s most momentous ballot in living memory.
“It’s all going to shit,” said Xavier Hembert, voting with his son Arthur on the rue Philippine de Hainaut, named after Edward III of England’s French-born wife, much loved here ever since she persuaded him not to decapitate the port’s Burghers in 1347.
“No one’s happy, we’re going round in circles. It feels like we’ve tried everything and now we’re lost. But people are right not to be happy. They vote, then nothing changes. So now we’re going to get the extremes. Whereas you’re coming to your senses.”
Twenty-four hours later and 30 miles away, Sue King, in Dover, was unconvinced. “I’m fed up with them everywhere,” she said outside a charity shop on a (briefly sunny) Biggin Street. “I’m annoyed and frustrated. They’re the same – in America, France, here.”
France and the UK – close neighbours, historic rivals, impossible friends – vote this week in elections likely to confirm a tidal wave of discontent against governments led by smartly dressed men overwhelmingly perceived as toxic and out of touch.
With centrists and left wing French figures aiming for a republican front on Sunday, the far right’s Marine Le Pen has dismissed rivals’ efforts, writing that “the political class gives an increasingly grotesque image of itself.”
Édouard Philippe appelle à voter communiste.
Jean-Luc Mélenchon appelle à voter Gérald Darmanin.
Et Christian Estrosi annonce qu’à la tête du groupe majoritaire, à l’Assemblée, je vais faire un coup d’État.
La classe politique donne d’elle-même une image de plus en plus…
Sandrine Rousseau, from the Ecologists, said she is opposed to a coalition with members of Macron’s camp.
🔴🗣️ Contrairement à Marine Tondelier, Sandrine Rousseau refuserait de rejoindre une coalition composée de macronistes, socialistes et de certains LR en cas de majorité relative : "Nous ferions une erreur". #Les4V@sandrousseaupic.twitter.com/svMqPFCR8y
Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the disgraced former managing director of the International Monetary Fund, gave an interview on French channel LCI yesterday evening.
In 2011, Strauss-Kahn was arrested in New York and accused of raping a hotel chambermaid. He denied the rape accusations, that were later dropped, and he subsequently settled a civil claim for an undisclosed sum. A French journalist also accused him of attempted rape, which he denied.
Édouard Philippe, a former prime minister, indicated in an interview on TF1 this morning that he will vote for a communist candidate in his constituency in order to oppose the far right.
Louis Aliot, vice president of the far right National Rally, said this morning that he believes French people are more afraid of France Unbowed than of his party.
Louis Aliot, vice-président du Rassemblement national, affirme : «Aujourd'hui, les Français ont beaucoup plus peur de La France insoumise, que du Rassemblement national» dans #HDProspic.twitter.com/FrHR0C0qHP
Gabriel Attal, the French prime minister and a Macron ally, has called for blocking the far right from getting a majority.
“Everything separates me from France Unbowed,” he said, noting however that the hard left party is not in a position to get a majority while the far right is in a situation where it could be in a position to govern.
.@GabrielAttal appelle au "barrage", même avec un bulletin LFI : "Tout me sépare de la France insoumise, mais elle n'est pas en situation d'avoir une majorité absolue : en revanche, l'extrême droite est en situation de gouverner le pays" #le710Interpic.twitter.com/KST7mT08Qy
