French Parties In Final Push For Votes Ahead Of Crunch Poll

AFP/APP

Paris: France’s political forces were on Friday to make a final bid for votes in crunch legislative elections that could see the far right take control of the government in a historic first.

The official campaigning period will end at midnight followed by a day off on Saturday, during which political activity is forbidden ahead of voting Sunday. Another week of campaigning will then lead up to the decisive second round on July 7.

The far-right National Rally (RN) is tipped to win the election, potentially giving the party the post of prime minister for the first time in its history in a tense “cohabitation” with centrist President Emmanuel Macron.

Opinion polls suggest his centrist alliance will come only third behind the RN and a broad but fragile left-wing coalition, the New Popular Front (NFP).

The RN party chief, Jordan Bardella, 28, would have a chance to lead a government as prime minister.

But he has insisted he would do so only if his party wins an absolute majority of the 577 seats in the National Assembly after the second round.

Friends and foes of Macron alike are still scratching their heads over why the president dissolved the lower house of parliament and called new elections in the aftermath of his party’s heavy defeat in this month’s EU Parliament vote.