French far right eyes power as rivals wrangle over scope of anti-Le Pen front

ON THE BRINKThe first round of France’s legislative elections has confirmed that Marine Le Pen’s far right is now the dominant force in French politics, putting her anti-immigrant National Rally within reach of power. Whether the rest of the political spectrum still has the ability – and the will – to hold it back will determine the outcome of July 7 runoffs.Far-right leader Marine Le Pen has said the party\'s new poster boy Jordan Bardella (right) will serve as prime minister if they win an absolute majority of seats in France\'s National Assembly.Advertising Read moreAfter a lightening campaign marred by a rise in hate speech, French voters on Sunday put the National Rally (RN) in a commanding position in the first round of snap elections, placing the party founded by supporters of Nazi-allied Vichy France at the gates of power.Le Pen’s party and its partners on the right took a third of the first-round vote, five points clear of a fledgling coalition of the left known as the New Popular Front – and a staggering 12 points ahead of President Emmanuel Macron’s ruling alliance.The nationalist, anti-immigrant party topped the race in 296 out of France’s 577 constituencies, winning 39 of them outright with over 50% of the vote. Whether it can clear the last hurdle in a second round next Sunday will hinge on a record number of three-way races pitting, in most cases, RN candidates against rivals from the left and Macron’s centre-right camp.Le Pen has urged voters to push her party over the line and hand it an “absolute majority” of seats in the National Assembly. In such a scenario, Macron would be expected to name the party’s 28-year-old poster boy Jordan Bardella as prime minister in an awkward power-sharing system, known as “cohabitation”, that would weaken him both at home and on the world stage.Read moreHow Jordan Bardella became France’s far-right poster boyThat prospect has triggered frantic horse-trading as parties

work to make alliances in some constituencies or pull out of others, hoping to stop the Le Pen juggernaut in its tracks.France’s two-round elections have traditionally barred the far right from power, with voters from left and right typically banding together in a “Republican Front” to defeat the Le Pen camp – a practice known as building a “barrage” (dam) against the far right.Once watertight, the dam has been steadily eroded, even as the far-right wave has grown stronger at each new election.Macron’s baffling gambleSunday’s snap vote followed Macron’s abrupt decision

to dissolve the National Assembly after his party’s drubbing at the hands of the far right in European elections on June 9.Designed to bolster his minority government, the president’s gamble has instead resulted in France’s biggest political own goal since his predecessor Jacques Chirac was forced to share power with the left after a similar snap election backfired in 1997, two years into his presidency.Even Le Pen has marvelled at the gift from the Élysée Palace, stating, in the wake of the dissolution: “When your opponent is riding a wave of support, the last thing you do is encourage that wave.”She likened the momentum from her party’s victory in European elections to that enjoyed by a newly elected president, when voters typically hand the incoming head of state a parliamentary majority to govern.“Le Pen’s analysis of the situation appears to be more accurate and reliable than that of Macron and his advisers,” said Erwan Lecoeur, a political analyst at the GRESEC research centre and the Université Grenoble Alpes. He added: “Absolutely everyone, starting with Le Pen, was simply baffled by the absurdity of Macron’s decision.”Far-right leader Marine Le Pen addresses supporters in her northern constituency of Henin-Beaumont, where she was re-elected in the first round with more than 50% of the vote. © François Lo Presti, AFPStéphane Fournier, a researcher at polling institute Cluster 17, said Sunday’s high turnout – at 66.7%, the highest since Chirac’s 1997 gambit – was evidence of the election’s exceptionally high stakes.“French voters understood very well that what it is at stake here is the prospect of a government in the hands of the far right,” he said. “Clearly, a third of voters want that prospect to become reality.”Before this election, Le Pen\'s party had never seen one of its candidates secure an outright victory in round one. On Sunday, she was among 39 party members who pulled off that feat.One of those victories came at the expense of Communist Party leader Fabien Roussel, a former presidential candidate and a prominent name in French politics, who was knocked out in a northern constituency held by the left since 1958.Left pulls out, ruling camp dithersRoussel’s allies in the NFP – including Jean-Luc Mélenchon of the hard-left La France insoumise (LFI) – have been quick