Far Right Wins First Round of French Parliamentary Elections

Le Pen’s National Rally is on track to score an unprecedented haul of seats in July 7 runoff.

PARIS—Marine Le Pen’s National Rally notched a victory in the first round of parliamentary elections across France on Sunday, moving her party one step closer to its goal of winning control of the National Assembly and taking the reins of government.

National Rally and its allies won 33% of first-round votes while the New Popular Front, a coalition of leftist parties, garnered 28% of ballots. President Emmanuel Macron’s pro-business party and its allies finished third with 21% of the vote.

National Rally is on track to score an unprecedented haul of parliamentary seats when voters return to the ballot box for the July 7 runoff, marking a watershed moment in the history of France’s modern Fifth Republic. If National Rally wins a majority in the National Assembly, Macron would face the possibility of sharing power with the first far-right government since Vichy France. Macron’s presidential term ends in 2027, and he said he won’t resign.

Macron placed a massive bet when he called the snap elections, expecting to edge out leftist parties in the first round and force their voters to rally around his party for the runoff as they had in previous national elections. The election, Macron said, would provide France with a moment of “clarification” after her forces trounced his in European elections at the start of June.

Now Macron’s calculation appears to have backfired, ushering Le Pen and her allies within striking distance of a 289-seat majority in the National Assembly. That would compel Macron to select a prime minister from Le Pen’s ranks as Paris is just weeks away from hosting the Summer Olympics.

On Sunday, Le Pen reveled in the thought of her protégé, 28-year-old Jordan Bardella, running the next government. Bardella has placed immigration and the rising cost of living at the center of his campaign, hammering the president over inflation and promising to turn the page on seven years of “macronisme.”

“We need an absolute majority so that Jordan Bardella will be appointed prime minister in eight days by Emmanuel Macron,” Le Pen said in a speech before a crowd of supporters waving tricolor flags.