France along with several other European countries heaved a huge sigh of relief when a Left-wing alliance of the New Popular Front (NFP) won the most seats in the French parliament after tactical voting in the second round election 7 July. The people rejected outright the Far-Right party – National Rally (RN), relegating it to the third position after President Emmanuel Macron’s coalition.
The NFP was formed only recently and it is a cluster of several parties ranging from the Far-Left, France Unbowed party, to the more moderate Socialists and the Ecologists. This bloc has won 182 seats in the National Assembly, making it the largest group, but well short of the 289 required for an absolute majority. Macron’s Centrist Ensemble alliance won 163 seats and Marine Le Pen’s Far-Right RN and its allies won 143 seats.
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Liberal and democratic population of the country was on the tenterhooks after the RN had surged ahead of all other rivals in the first round of voting on 30 June. Apparently that triggered panic among majority of the French people with calls from the NFP for national mobilisation to prevent the Far-Right from capturing power. The latter’s anti-immigration politics is perceived to be a threat to democracy and an egregious assault on the republican values of the country. The mood of the people could be gauged from the way several players of the French national football squad, which has so many non-white members, urged the people to vote against the Far-Right.
The victory of the Left and the Centre in France over the Far-Right comes only a few days after the UK overwhelmingly voted the Labour Party to power ending the 14 year-rule of the Conservative Party that brought chaos, instability, a dysfunctional economy and cost of living crisis for the working class. The Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez put the outcome of French parliamentary elections in the right perspective when he congratulated voters in the two countries for rejecting the Far-Right. “This week, two of the largest countries in Europe have chosen the same path that Spain chose a year ago,” he said. The path is the rejection of the extreme right and a decisive commitment to a social left that addresses people’s problems “with serious and brave policies,” Sanchez wrote in a post on X. The UK and France have given their mandate for progress and social advancement and against the regression in rights and freedoms.
The loud and clear message is that there is no agreement or government with the extreme Right. Cheers rang out on the streets of Paris the moment the projected results showed a Leftist victory. Speaking to a crowd of his ecstatic supporters near Stalingrad square, Jean-Luc Melenchon, the firebrand leader of France Unbowed, said the results came as a “huge relief for the overwhelming majority of people in our country.” For obvious reasons, Jordan Bardella, the Far-Right RN’s 28-year-old leader, sought to give a spin to the results saying France had been thrown into “uncertainty and instability.” The mood in his party’s main office, however, was one of sombre bordering on despondency. Even 24 hours before the second round of voting the name of only one party – RN – circulated throughout the length and breadth of France as the next ruling coalition.
It appears this very possibility shook the majority of the population. Just as the smaller parties started withdrawing from the contest in the second round so as to ensure that there was only one candidate against the RN, the people rallied behind the two main alliances opposed to the RN.
France has thus shown to the world the way the UK did last week that the liberal, Left and socialist parties can resist the Far-Right capturing power in several European countries. The results from the two top European countries hold out hope for liberal, democratic rule in the pervading gloom of Far-Right forces spreading their tentacles across the globe.
