France braces for ‘high drama’ run-offs as Le Pen’s far right eyes power

France is preparing to head to the polls again for a second round of voting for the National Assembly, Al Jazeera reports.

After his party’s defeat by the far right in the recent European Parliament vote, President Emmanuel Macron dissolved the parliament and called for two rounds of snap elections.

In the first, the far-right National Rally (RN) party emerged victorious with more than 29 per cent of the vote.

Protests have again swept the country as demonstrators call for voters to turn out on Sunday against the party formerly known as the National Front.

In Paris on Wednesday, people marched from Place de la Republique to the National Rally’s headquarters in the French capital.

“The mood is quite high drama and intense,” said Philippe Marliere, professor of French and European politics at University College London. “It is a mood of mobilisation on the part of all those who don’t want National Rally to get a majority or even win the election.”

Macron’s Renaissance party won only about 20 per cent of the vote in the first round. A coalition of left-wing parties, called the New Popular Front, scored higher with 28 per cent. The coalition is intended to unite voters against the nationalist and anti-immigrant RN party, led by Marine Le Pen.

Danielle Barron moved to France from the United States more than 20 years ago, just after Jacques Chirac defeated Jean-Marie Le Pen, Marine’s father, in a presidential run-off.

Her children were born in France, and the family became French citizens four years ago. Barron has been voting in France ever since.

“I immigrated to France six months after the 2002 [US] elections full of hope and convinced that I was fleeing a broken democracy entrenched in institutionalised racism and quickly spiralling towards a far-right regime. I never imagined that 22 years later, I would be facing the same fears in my adoptive country,” Barron told Al Jazeera.

Although the results of the first round were not surprising, voters on the left are worried they are running out of options against the RN.

“Mobilising the left, forming a coalition and a surge of voters is no longer enough. The far right still won, which is a bit depressing,” Baptiste Colin, a 29-year-old theatre producer from Lyon, told Al Jazeera. “I am still happy to see the Popular Front and parties who have united or candidates who have [stepped down] to not split the vote.”

Voter turnout in the first round was high – nearly 68 per cent, compared with 47.5 per cent in the 2022 parliamentary elections. More than 70 candidates who scored a majority were elected outright in the first round. The others head to run-offs with the top two or three parties in every constituency.

“Confronted by the National Rally, it is time for a large, clearly democratic and republican alliance for the second round,” Macron said in a statement after the results of the first round.

But many who support Macron’s Renaissance party are not willing to back a Popular Front candidate for the second round, even with the president’s party trailing behind.

“Macron voters could determine the election. They have the chance to block the RN, but I am worried it is too late and that Macron voters are not ready to vote for the left. There is still rhetoric equating the left with the far right in terms of extremist policies,” Colin said.

In the run-offs, the centre could band together with the existing left coalition so there are no three-way races splitting the non-RN vote.

“Withdrawals are essential. Without withdrawals, if you have three candidates, voters do not vote strategically. Voters tend to remain loyal to their candidate,” Marliere said. “But it is not a question of voting for an opponent. It’s a question of using that vote to defeat the National Rally.”