Projections: Left narrowly leading Macron’s alliance in French elections
Paris, Jun 12 (EFE).- The NUPES leftist coalition holds a narrow advantage over the Ensemble alliance headed by President Emmanuel Macron in the first round of France’s legislative elections on Sunday, according to early vote projections.
NUPES has obtained between 25 percent and 26.2 percent of the votes and Ensemble between 25 and 25.8 percent, according to projections by four demographic institutes after the polls closed, although this appears to put the two political forces neck and neck with no clear “winner” as yet.
The ultrarightist RN is in third with projections of receiving between 18.9 percent and 19.7 percent of the votes, while the conservative Republicans (LR) appear to have garnered between 11.3 percent and 12.5 percent.
NUPES is an unprecedented left-wing alliance made up of the La France Insoumise party of Jean-Luc Melenchon, the Socialists, the Greens and the Communists.
Voter turnout was relatively low for a first electoral round at around 47 percent and with absenteeism around 52.5 percent, the current record for voter abstention being set at 51.3 percent in 2017.
The projections suggest that Macron’s alliance may not be guaranteed to maintain its absolute majority of 289 seats in the National Assembly.
The Elabe institute forecast that the president’s alliance will obtain between 270 and 310 seats, while Ipsos projected 255-295, Ifop 180-210 and Harris 260-300.
Meanwhile, NUPES should obtain between 150 and 220 seats, thus becoming the largest opposition force in the French legislature.
The Republicans are expected to finish in third place in the National Assembly with between 33 and 80 seats, while the RN will obtain between 5 and 45 seats.
Voters were called to cast their ballots in the legislative elections to choose their representatives for the coming five years in the National Assembly, the balloting coming the liberal-centrist, pro-European Macron handily won reelection to a second five-year term in April.
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