For many, France feels like a very different place on Monday.
Results from the first round of parliamentary elections held on Sunday revealed a country deeply divided, with a rising far-right winning record numbers of votes and the near-collapse of President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist party.
“The far right at the door of power,” said the front page of the daily Le Parisien, the morning after the first half of snap elections called by Mr Macron.
“Twelve million of our fellow citizens voted for a far-right party that is clearly racist and anti-republican,” the leftist newspaper Libération said in an article, referring to Marine Le Pen’s National Rally party. “The head of state threw France under the bus, the bus continued without slowing down and is now parked in front of the gates of Matignon” – the office of the prime minister.
If the National Assembly gets an absolute majority in Sunday’s second round, Mr Macron will be forced to appoint a prime minister from among his own ranks, who will in turn form a cabinet.
There was a sense of whiplash and distrust of the political upheaval of Mr Macron’s party, which with its allies has the most seats, but not an absolute majority, in the National Assembly. This centrist coalition finished a distant third in the first round of the two-round election race. Only two of his candidates – and not one of his ministers running for a seat – received enough votes to be re-elected without a run-off for their positions, compared to 37 members of the far-right National Rally and 32 of the left-wing coalition of parties. called the New People’s Front, which came second.
The results of the first round of voting do not usually provide a reliable projection of the number of parliamentary seats each party will secure. But the National Rally now looks very likely to be the biggest force in the powerful National Assembly. The question is whether he will gather enough seats to obtain an absolute majority.
If that does not happen, the National Assembly will likely be without a government, with Mr Macron’s centrist party and its allies squeezed between right and left and with much reduced power.
“End of an era,” said the front page of Les Echos, the main daily business.
“When historians look back on the dissolution, they will have only one word: disaster!” reported an editorial in the conservative newspaper Le Figaro.
“Emmanuel Macron had everything, or almost everything,” he continued. “He lost everything.”
On the ground, the reaction to the vote reflected the country’s division. In the north, which is considered a stronghold of the far-right National Rally, there was jubilation.
“I’m going to party all night,” said Manuel Queco, 42, a contractor, at a local hall in the town of Hénin-Beaumont, where Ms Le Pen was receiving a flurry of congratulations on Sunday night. after being directly elected in her own race. As the crowd of National Rally supporters broke into a round of the national anthem, Mr Keko raised his glass of champagne. “I’ve been waiting for them to win since I was 18.”
In Paris, first-round results revealed an electoral map that had almost entirely excluded the National Rally, but was split between the New Popular Front and the president’s party. However, the dominant feeling in the Place de la République, where thousands of left-wing supporters gathered on Sunday night, was one of sadness and sympathy.
“I never thought I’d see this in my life — the far right leading the country,” said Camille Hemard, 50, a Latin, Greek and French teacher at an advanced college. She had brought her 16-year-old daughter along to seek solace in the crowd who were dancing and chanting: “Everybody hates fascists.”
He added: “I was hoping my children wouldn’t know this.”
From radio, television sets and news websites, pollsters reminded people that not everything was decided. Only 76 of the country’s 577 legislative seats were won outright. A battle for the remaining 501 would follow this week, leading up to the final vote on Sunday. The question many were asking was how many candidates would drop out of three-way races in a strategic move to prevent the far-right from winning.
Official results published by the interior ministry showed the National Rally and its allies won about 33 percent of the vote. Mr. Macron’s centrist Renaissance party and its allies took about 20 percent and the New Popular Front won about 28 percent of the vote.
Ségolène Le Strandich contributed to the report from Hénin-Beaumont, France.
