French voters are heading to the voting stations on Sunday for the second round of the nation’s parliamentary elections to elect 501 deputies in the French Elections.
Voter turnout is higher than the previous Sunday’s first round at 26.63%, an increase of 7.5 points compared to the corresponding turnout in 2022 (18.99%), as well as compared to the first round (25.9%).
The polls opened in France at 9:00 AM Greek time, and 43.3 million voters will choose between two candidates competing in 409 constituencies, three candidates in 89 constituencies, and four candidates in 2 constituencies.
In the first round last Sunday, 76 deputies were elected, having secured over 51% of the vote in their constituencies. Of these, 39 were candidates from Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally, 32 from the new left-wing Popular Front, 2 from Emmanuel Macron‘s party, and 5 were considered independent right-wingers.
In approximately 200 constituencies where three candidates were supposed to compete based on the first-round results, the parties of French President Emmanuel Macron and the left decided to jointly withdraw their candidates to thwart Le Pen-supported candidates, led by Jordan Bardella from winning the seats.
Recent polls indicated Marine Le Pen’s party leading in seats but without being able to secure an absolute majority (289 seats) in the new French National Assembly.
Specifically, according to the latest Ipsos poll published in the French newspaper Le Monde, the National Rally and its allies could secure between 175 and 205 seats, compared to the 89 they won in 2022. The new Popular Front of left-wing parties and other leftist candidates could gather between 145 and 175 seats, compared to their previous 150, while Macron’s party is projected to see a significant reduction from 245 seats in 2022 to between 118 and 148 seats.
