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France General Election: Second Phase Voting Today

  • By Thetripurapost Desk, Paris
  • Jul 07, 2024
  • 277

Voting is being held in France today for the second phase of the National Assembly. Earlier, elections were held on 30 June. In this, the right-wing party National Rally (NR) got the highest 35.15% votes. The left-wing New Popular Front (NFP) alliance was in second place. It got 27.99% votes. At the same time, Macron's Renaissance Party managed to get only 20.76% votes.

Today, only those candidates are contesting who got more than 12.5 percent votes in the first phase. To get a majority in the National Assembly, any party needs to win 289 seats. The term of the French Parliament was to end in 2027, but due to a big defeat in the European Union, President Macron dissolved the Parliament ahead of time this month.

In fact, the Macron government was running on the basis of a coalition. His coalition had only 250 seats and every time to pass a law, he had to garner support from other parties. Currently, the right-wing party National Rally (NR) has 88 seats in the Parliament. American news channel CNN has estimated that the right-wing party NR will win 230-280 seats out of 577 seats after the second phase of voting. The leftist NFP may get 125-165 seats.

Macron's Renaissance Party and his alliance are likely to get only between 70 to 100 seats. Even if Macron's Renaissance Party loses in the National Assembly elections, Macron will remain in office. Macron has already said that no matter who wins, he will not resign from the post of President.

In fact, after the defeat in the EU elections, if Macron's party also loses in the Parliament, then there could be pressure on him to leave the post of President. Therefore, Macron has already made it clear that he will not leave his post.

If Marine Le Pen's National Rally party wins a majority in the parliamentary elections, Macron will become extremely weak in the parliament and he will not be able to pass any bill as per his wish.

In France, the elections for the President and the National Assembly are held separately. In such a situation, even if a party does not have a majority in the Parliament, the leader of that party can still win the presidential election. The same thing happened with Emmanuel Macron in the 2022 elections. He won the presidential election, but his coalition did not get a majority in the National Assembly.
The National Rally, an opposition party that is only 28 years old and is challenging Macron,
is unlikely to get a majority in Parliament. However, it can emerge as the largest party. If it gets a majority, then according to the constitution, Macron will choose the Senate MPs from that party.

National Rally leader Jordan Bardella is only 28 years old. He has said that if his party does not get absolute majority, he will not become the Prime Minister under any circumstances. Bardella said that he does not want to become President Macron's assistant. However, if the National Rally gets a majority, a co-existence government can be formed in France again. A co-existence government means a government in which the government is run in collaboration with the opposition party.

This has happened before, when domestic policy was in the hands of the Prime Minister, and foreign and defense policy decisions were taken by the President. However, French President Emmanuel Macron has warned that right-wing parties could plunge the country into civil wa