PARIS, France—National Rally, a “France First” conservative party led by Marine Le Pen’s protégé Jordan Bardella, 28, dominated the first round of snap parliament elections in the Republic of France on Sunday, June 30.
“Long live the Republic and long live France,” Marine Le Pen, Parliamentary party leader of National Rally, posted to X. “I thank the voters of my constituency who renewed their confidence in me by re-electing me in the first round with 58% of the votes. The objective now: to obtain an absolute majority in the National Assembly next Sunday.”
Je remercie les électeurs de ma circonscription qui me renouvellent leur confiance en me réélisant dès le premier tour avec 58% des voix.
L’objectif désormais : obtenir dimanche prochain une majorité absolue à l’Assemblée nationale.
Merci à tous ! pic.twitter.com/w3qNdcUrLZ
— Marine Le Pen (@MLP_officiel) June 30, 2024
The rightwing National Rally garnered an estimated 33% of the votes, with leftwing New Popular Front in second place with 28% and current President Emmanuel Macron’s Renaissance party trailing in third with 21%. The head of France’s Communist party, Fabien Roussel, was knocked out of the race by National Rally candidate, Guillaume Florquin.
The snap election, called by Macron after a disastrous European Parliamentary election on June 9, saw a 40-year record-high voter turnout of 69%. The political gamble by Macron, “went spectacularly wrong,” according to the Ben Hall, editor of the Financial Times.
Jean-Luc Mélenchon, leader of the far-left La France Insoumise party, said the leftwing alliance is withdrawing its candidates who came third in the first round, saying: “Our guideline is simple and clear: not a single more vote for the National Rally.”
National Rally strategies for the second round is to capitalize on the threat of “far left with violent tendencies.”
Thousands of leftwing supporters, communists and Islamists took to the streets of the French Capital of Paris and other cities throughout France protesting the right’s historic victory on Sunday.
Tens of thousands of left-wing rioters take to the streets of France causing chaos.
Stores are being looted as activists set fire to the streets, launching fireworks, tear gas and smoke grenades after the results of the French election.
— Oli London (@OliLondonTV) June 30, 2024
With the results of final counts still coming in, according to Angelique Chrisafis, the Guardian’s correspondent, 65 of 577 Members of Parliament (MPs) have been elected in the first round—38 MPs for the far-right National Rally and its alliance with Les Républicains, 21 MPs from the left alliance and only two MPs for Emmanuel Macron’s centrist party alliance.
If National Rally wins an absolute majority (289 seats) of the seats in Parliament next Sunday, July 7, it will be the first time since World War 2 that a right party will control the government. However, Macron said he will not resign as President and serve the remainder of his term which ends in 2027. This would result in National Rally’s leader Jordan Bardella assuming the role of Prime Minister and Macron having to share power or finding himself unable to govern EU’s second largest economy and top military power.
France has been a staunch opponent of Russia and key ally to Ukraine. In May, Macron urged Ukraine to strike military bases inside Russia with western support.
Recent rightwing victories in Europe
European Parliamentary elections earlier in June saw a surge in rightwing victories across Europe—from Belgium to Spain—whereas Green and leftwing parties saw a decline. Ursula von der Leyen, a member of the centrist European People’s Party, retained her seat as president of the European Commission.
When reviewing winning rightwing party platforms in European elections, two issues stood out to the Lynnwood Times, immigration and cultural identity. Below are the most recent wave of rightwing to center-right election victories in Europe:
- In March 2024, Portugal’s hard-right Chega (Enough) party won 50 seats, up from 12 seats in a 2022 election. This gain of seats upends the dominance of the Social Democrats and Socialist parties that have alternated power for decades in Portugal.
- In February of 2024, Finland’s Alexander Stubb of the National Coalition Party won the election and his party is now the largest party and the ruling political party of Finland.
- In 2023, Geert Wilders’s The Party for Freedom in the Netherlands won 37 seats in the 150-seat House of Representatives, becoming the Dutch country’s largest party.
- Germany’s Alternative for Germany party came in second in European Parliament elections earlier this month with 16% of the vote. The center-right CDU/CSU led with 21%. Since 2023, polling shows AfD as the second most popular party in Germany.
- The 2023 Spanish general election saw the conservative People’s Party led by Alberto Núnez Feijóo gained forty-eight seats in Congress and attain an absolute majority in the Senate.
- The 2022 Italian elections resulted in a victory for Giorgia Meloni and the Brothers of Italy, a conservative nationalist party.
- Hungary’s incumbent rightwing prime minister Viktor Orbán won re-election to a fourth term in 2022 with 54.13% of the popular vote.
- The 2022 Sweden Democrats, a nationalist conservative political party led by Jimmie Åkesson became the largest member of Sweden’s right-wing governing bloc, and second largest party in the country’s Riksdag.
Key highlights from the June 9 European Parliamentary Elections
- Austria’s far-right Freedom Party (FPÖ) took a majority of the nations’ 20 seats on the European Parliament.
- Marine Le Pen’s National Rally party won 32% of the French vote in the European Parliament which was more than twice as much as Macron’s centrist Renaissance party.
- Hungary’s right Fidesz party continued to maintain a grip on Hungarian politics winning 33% of the vote.
- Belgium’s liberal prime minister, Alexander De Croo, announced his resignation after his party took home only 7% of the vote in EU elections.
- The Brothers of Italy party doubled the number of seats it has in the European parliament after winning 28% of the vote.
- Spain’s conservative People’s Party overtook the ruling Socialist party to finish first in the polls. The PP gained 22 seats after winning 34.2% of the vote while far-right party Vox came in third place with 9.6% and six seats, up two from 2019. The newly formed far-right party Se Acabó la Fiesta (The Party’s Over) also made a strong debut on the European stage, winning three seats after campaigning on a platform to take on “the deep state.”
Author: Mario Lotmore
