Paris, Jun 30 (EFE).- France’s far-right National Rally (RN) is eyeing historic gains in the first round of legislative elections that began on Sunday.
The RN is leading in all surveys, with an average of 36% support, more than the 31.4% it obtained in the European elections on June 9, which prompted President Emmanuel Macron to call the snap poll.
More than 49.5 million citizens have been called to the polls to elect representatives for 577 seats in the National Assembly, with the second round scheduled for July 7.
Voting stations opened in metropolitan France at 8am local time and will close at 6pm in smaller towns, at 7pm in many medium-sized cities, and at 8pm in large cities.
The New Popular Front, a coalition of left-wing parties, is projected to win 28.2% of the vote, while Macron’s bloc is further back, with an average of 20.%, a sharp drop from its results in elections two years ago.
The polls even suggest the RN could win an absolute majority — at least 289 seats — in the second round.
In the 2022 elections, the far-right party obtained 88 seats, its best ever result.
The president of the RN and candidate for Prime Minister, Jordan Bardella, 28, has urged French voters to give him an absolute majority to have a free hand to be able to apply his electoral agenda.
Voters will elect 539 deputies from metropolitan France, 27 from overseas territories in the Pacific, Indian Ocean, and Caribbean, as well as 11 representing French people living abroad.
The voting centers already opened on Saturday, depending on the time zones in the overseas territories and in different constituencies that elect French residents abroad.
Each constituency represents approximately 125,000 residents.
If no candidate obtains an absolute majority of the votes in the first round, the top two in the first round will go to the second runoff vote, as well as those who have obtained the equivalent of at least 12.5% of the voters registered in the constituency. EFE
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