• RN secured one in three votes in the first round of parliamentary elections, aiming for an absolute majority.
• PM Gabriel Attal emphasized the stakes to prevent the far right from achieving an absolute majority.
• RN and its allies have secured 38 confirmed seats, while the Popular Front has 32 seats.

France’s political rivals barely had time to digest the results of National Rally (RN)’s election success before they had to launch a new campaign for the final vote. The anti-immigration party secured one in three votes in the first round of parliamentary elections and is now aiming to win an absolute majority.

RN leader Jordan Bardella, who aims to become France’s next PM, urged voters to choose between what he called “an existential threat to the French nation” in the form of a left-wing alliance, and a party of patriots ready to take decisive action.

PM Gabriel Attal, who may be days away from losing his job, asserts that the stakes are clear: to prevent the far right from achieving an absolute majority.

Emmanuel Macron, who called the election and thrust France into a political crisis, still has three years left in his presidency and has vowed not to resign.

However, the centrist movement he founded only placed third in the first round and now sees itself overshadowed by a left-wing alliance called New Popular Front, as well as Marine Le Pen’s National Rally and Jordan Bardella.

RN needs 289 out of the 577 seats in the National Assembly to form an absolute majority and enact its program on immigration, law and order, and tax cuts.

It aims to restrict social welfare to French citizens, abolish the automatic right to French citizenship (droit du sol) for people who came to France as children, and prohibit 3.5 million people with dual citizenship from holding sensitive, strategic jobs.

RN and its allies have already secured 38 confirmed seats, winning outright with more than half of the local vote in Sunday’s first round. The Popular Front has 32 seats, while the Macron alliance has just two, indicating how far behind the governing party has fallen.

Another 501 seats remain undecided, and the big three-party blocs have important decisions to make within the next 24 hours.

Candidates who qualified for Sunday’s second round in the Macron camp or the Popular Front must decide by 18:00 on Tuesday whether to withdraw, aiming to maximize the chances of a political rival defeating the National Rally. Both the Popular Front and the Macron Ensemble camp have urged voters not to support the far right.

Tensions between the two parties burst into the open on Monday, highlighting the high stakes of this election and the intensity of the brief campaign. Greens leader Marine Tondelier nearly broke into tears during a radio interview, reacting angrily to a Macron minister’s call not to support the largest party in the left-wing alliance.

Moments earlier, Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire had advised voters to avoid France Unbowed, which critics denounce as extremist, and similarly cautioned against voting for Mr. Bardella’s party. Ms. Tondelier, who had lived in a town held by Marine Le Pen’s National Rally for 10 years, accused the Macron alliance of misunderstanding the issue and opting for dishonor and cowardice.

“Does National Rally have a chance of winning an absolute majority in the National Assembly? The answer is yes. Is France Unbowed in the position of winning an absolute majority, the answer is no.”

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