France has elected a leftist coalition government led by the New Popular Front (NFP) despite polls overwhelmingly predicting a victory for Marine Le Pen’s right-wing National Rally (RN). While France’s first-round vote last week resulted in a historic victory for Le Pen, Sunday’s second-round vote resulted in a marginal leftist win for its 577-seat National Assembly, with no majority elected. Coalition party NFP, comprised of socialists and greens, and its alliance with far-left France Unbowed, won 182 seats, President Emmanuel Macron’s Ensemble alliance 163 seats, and the NR and its alliances 143 seats. To win an absolute majority, a party must secure 289 seats.While the NFP won the most seats, an increase of 57, the majority of voters chose Le Pen, who objects to mass immigration. The RN had 37.1% of the vote, per Politico, and NFP only 26.3%. Ensemble received 24.7% of the vote. In the first round of voting, RN won 33% of the vote, the NFP 28% and Macron’s ruling coalition only 20%, per France 24..The outcome of the election means France faces a hung parliament, which would gridlock cabinet’s ability to make decisions. This comes as the government is under pressure to cut tens of billions from the budget, per the Wall Street Journal. Further, the Paris Olympics are only three weeks away. Macron, who will maintain his seat through 2027, is now tasked with finding cohesiveness in a fragmented coalition of misfits with little in common other than blocking a right-wing government. France Unbowed leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon has called for the resignation of Macron’s prime minister, Gabriel Attal, and for Macron to give the NFP a mandate to form government. “The president must bow down and admit this defeat without trying to circumvent it in any way,” said Mélenchon.Macron however said he would keep Attal in his role “for the time being in order to ensure the country’s stability.” The shocking about-face is a result of tactical voting, WSJ reported. The NFP implemented what is known as the “republican front,” a strategy that benefits the leftist party by making agreements with Ensemble to pool their votes by withdrawing hundreds of third-place candidates — and then strategically place specific matches to compete against RN candidates for the final round of voting. Voters then tactically voted for whoever was the RN opponent across each district. France 24 reported more than 200 candidates from various leftist parties stepped out of the race between the first and second round of voting to make way for more strategically-placed candidates to rival the RN, which was booming in popularity. “(The) New Popular Front is ready to govern,” said Mélenchon Sunday, per EuroNews.The NFP in its campaign promised to slash Macron’s economic strategy, including his controversial decision to up the age of retirement to 64. NFP pledges to lower it to 60, as well as bring back wealth tax, add social programs like housing benefits and raise public-sector wages. These ambitions will cost taxpayers CA$148 billion in 2025 and CA$221.5 billion in 2027.“The New Popular Front will apply its program, nothing but its program,” Mélenchon said. Le Pen’s pick for prime minister, Jordan Bardella, 28, called Macron and the leftist coalition parties an “alliance of dishonor.”The RN intended to overhaul France’s immigration policies. The party pledged to restrict access to citizenship and social programs like welfare and housing, including amending the constitution to disallow children born to foreigners in France to obtain citizenship. Despite the unexpected election outcome, Le Pen on Sunday said “the tide is rising,” noting the increase of French who want stricter immigration policies. “It hasn’t risen high enough, but it’s still rising. It’s a deferred victory,” said Le Pen, per the WSJ.
