Jordan Bardella, the president of the National Rally party (far right), criticized the "shame coalition" on Sunday, stating that it deprived the French people of a "recovery policy" at a time when his party ranked third in the latest estimates of the legislative election results in the second round. Bardella said, "The National Rally embodies more than ever the only alternative," promising that his party would not slide into "any narrow political compromise" and asserting that "nothing can stop a people that has regained hope."
This comes as preliminary estimates of the voting results in the legislative elections in France indicate that the left coalition leads in the second round, with President Emmanuel Macron's camp in second place, ahead of the far right, but with no bloc securing an absolute majority in the National Assembly. The "New Popular Front" is estimated to secure between 172 and 215 seats, Macron's camp between 150 and 180 seats, and the National Rally, which was initially favored to obtain an absolute majority, between 115 and 155 seats.
Macron plunged France into uncertainty with his unexpected announcement on June 9 to dissolve the National Assembly and call for early legislative elections after his bloc's failure in the European elections. The National Rally (far right) and its allies led the first round results by a significant margin (33%), ahead of the left coalition "National Popular Front" (28%) and the presidential camp (center-right), which only received 20% of the votes. To obstruct the National Rally, more than two hundred left and center candidates withdrew from districts where there was a three-way race in the second round, thereby enhancing the prospects for the National Rally's opponents.
