There are 49 million French people called to the polls (polling stations open from 8am to 8pm in large cities), in the first round of early legislative elections for the dissolution of Parliament announced by President Emmanuel Macron on the same evening as the electoral defeat of the government majority in the elections Europeans, last June 9th.
Voters must choose 577 deputies from the Assemblée Nationale , each of whom must be elected in one of the constituencies into which the country is divided.
To get through today's first round and take part in the run-off on Sunday 7 July , it will be necessary to overcome the 12.5% threshold .
The first exit polls see Le Pen at 34%, Macron at 20.3% and Gauche at 28.1%.
At 5pm there was a real boom in turnout, close to 60%, to be precise 59.39% . This is 20 percentage points more than at the same time of the 2022 legislative elections. For another yardstick, consider that 52% of French people voted in the European elections (definitive data).
Since, according to the statistics, the "triangular" clashes in the second round are increasing, if this turnout is confirmed, the 3-way matches will be between 160 and 200, a very high number which would not displease the Macronist majority in difficulty which must prevent the ballot on July 7 becomes a private issue between the far right and the New Left Popular Front.
Record also in the number of proxies for voting, mostly requested by people who had already set holidays and who had already emptied Paris and most of the cities since yesterday.
THE POLLS – As for the polls, the Rassemblement National and its allies led by Éric Ciotti are largely in the lead in terms of voting intentions for today's first round, which give them around 36% .
The left-wing bloc Nouveau Front Populaire (NFP) is in second place, around 28-29% . The presidential majority , grouped in the Ensemble pour la République coalition, is estimated at around 20% and could be the big loser of the vote .
The main unknown, also in the forecasts of seats in the National Assembly after the second round on 7 July, concerns whether the Rassemblement national will be able to reach the threshold of 289 seats which constitute the absolute majority , which Marine Le Pen is aiming for, and in which case Jordan Bardella would accept the position of prime minister, due to an unprecedented cohabitation of the far right with the centrist Emmanuel Macron at the Elysée.
(Unioneonline/vl)
