By Benoit Van Overstraeten and Layli Foroudi
PARIS (Reuters) – Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally (RN) party emerged as the winner in the first round of France’s parliamentary elections on Sunday, exit polls showed, but the unpredictable final result will depend on days of negotiations before next week’s second round.
RN is believed to win around 34% of the vote, according to exit polls by Ipsos, Ifop, OpinionWay and Elabe.
That was ahead of rivals on the left and center, including President Emmanuel Macron’s Together alliance, whose bloc would win between 20.5% and 23%. The New Popular Front, a hastily assembled leftist coalition, was projected to win about 29% of the vote, exit polls showed.
The high turnout vote, which was in line with pre-election polls, provided little clarity on whether the anti-immigrant and eurosceptic RN will be able to form a government alongside the pro-EU Macron.
There is now a week of political negotiations before the runoff on July 7. The final outcome will depend on how the parties decide to join forces in each of France’s 577 electoral districts for the second round. In the past, France’s center-right and center-left parties have united to prevent the RN from coming to power, but that dynamic, called the “republican front” in France, is less certain than ever.
The French president’s decision this month to call early elections plunged his country into political uncertainty, sent shock waves across Europe and prompted a sell-off of French assets on financial markets.
Turnout in Sunday’s vote was high, underscoring how France’s political crisis has energized the electorate.
At 1500 GMT, turnout was nearly 60%, compared with 39.42% two years ago, the highest comparable turnout figure since the 1986 legislative vote, said Ipsos France research director Mathieu Gallard.
Long a pariah, the RN is now closer to power than ever. Le Pen has sought to detoxify a party known for racism and anti-Semitism, a tactic that has worked amid voter anger at Macron, the high cost of living and growing concerns about immigration.