PARIS: France voted in a second round of parliamentary elections on Sunday with the far-right National Assembly (RN) vying for power but unlikely to win a majority, raising the specter of a chaotically hung parliament.
A deserted parliament would seriously erode President Emmanuel Macron’s authority and herald a long period of instability and political deadlock in the eurozone’s second-largest economy.
If the nationalist, euroskeptic RN secures a majority, it would usher in France’s first far-right government since World War II and send shockwaves through the European Union at a time when populist parties are building support across the continent.
Voting ends at 18:00 (1600 GMT) in cities and towns and at 20:00 in larger cities. Pollsters will deliver the first projections based on the first counts from a sample of polling stations at 8 p.m.
Opinion polls predict Marine Le Pen’s RN will become the dominant force in the National Assembly as voters chastise Macron for the cost of living crisis and for being out of touch with the hardships people face.
However, the RN is seen to have fallen short of the target of 289 seats that would have given Le Pen’s 28-year-old protégé Jordan Bardell a working majority as prime minister.
The far-right’s projected margin of victory has narrowed since Macron’s centrist Together alliance and the left-wing New Popular Front (NPF) withdrew dozens of candidates from the three-round election in the second round in an attempt to consolidate the anti-RN vote.
There was an increase in political violence during the short three-week campaign. Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said authorities had recorded more than 50 physical attacks on candidates and activists.
Some luxury boutiques along the Champs Elysees, including a Louis Vuitton store, barricaded windows and Darmanin said he had deployed 30,000 police over fears of violent protests if the far-right won.
Long an outcast for many because of its history of racism and anti-Semitism, the RN has expanded its support beyond its traditional base along the Mediterranean coast and the deindustrialized north, stoking voter anger at Macron over tight household budgets, security and immigration concerns.
“The French really want change,” Le Pen told TF1 television on Wednesday.
Macron stunned the country and angered many of his political allies and supporters when he called a snap election after the RN’s humbling in a European Parliament vote last month, hoping to damage his rivals in legislative elections.
Whatever the final outcome, his political agenda now appears dead three years into his presidency.
“There is a risk that the country will become ungovernable.”
The French business elite is also concerned about the risk of volatile politics and instability ahead.
“We are very concerned about what will happen,” Ross McInnes, chairman of Safran airline, told Reuters.
An RN-led government would raise the fundamental question of who really speaks for France in Europe and on the global stage, and where the EU is headed given France’s strong role in the bloc. EU laws would almost certainly curb its plans to crack down on immigration.
RN pledges to limit immigration, relax legislation to deport illegal migrants and tighten rules on family reunification. On the economy, the RN has weakened some of its front-line policy commitments to support household spending and lower the retirement age, constrained by France’s growing budget deficit.
Bardella says the RN will refuse to form a government unless it gets a majority, although Le Pen has said she might try if she doesn’t.
France is not used to building broad cross-party coalitions in the event of a hung parliament. Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, who is expected to lose his job, is among a number of political leaders who have ruled out such a scenario. Another option in such a scenario is a caretaker government that manages day-to-day affairs but without a reform mandate.
French asset prices rose on expectations that the RN will not win a majority, banking stocks are rising and investors are demanding a risk premium to maintain the tapering of French debt. Economists question whether RN’s massive spending plans are fully funded.
Pensioner Claude Lefloche said the future of France was at stake.
