Le Pen's RN achieves historic victory in France as centrists and left unite to prevent far right majority

Marine Le Pen's right achieved a historic victory in the first round of the French elections, prompting a call from President Emmanuel Macron and several leaders of the left and center to call for unity in hopes of  preventing their conservative rivals from achieving an absolute majority.

The National Rally party (RN) achieved 34% of the votes, with 63% counted, clearly ahead of the left-wing New Popular Front (NPF) and the Macronist bloc.

Voting estimates currently report about 28% to the NPF, 20%-22% to the outgoing Macronist majority and around 9%-10% to the traditional right.

Still, under the French system, very few of the 577 seats in the National Assembly were assigned Sunday evening, leaving the vast majority to be decided in the second round next Sunday.

At the moment, the RN is in the lead in almost 300 constituencies, compared to 133 for the NFP and 61 for the Macronist coalition.

Many of the contests in the second round will be between three candidates, so the possible strategic withdrawals of other candidates could help the center and left build a united majority.

One of the three national projections by political analysts sees the RN obtaining an absolute majority in the second round (it assigns it between 255 and 295 seats, when the threshold is 289).

Jordan Bardella, the RN’s candidate for prime minister also called for a mobilization to achieve an absolute majority in the second round.

Macron calls for unity against the RN

The victory of the RN, already ahead in the polls, generated an immediate call from Macron, in a statement, to quickly form “a clearly democratic and republican broad union for the second round” in order to stop the far right.

Macron's words were interpreted as a call for candidates ranking third in the different constituencies to withdraw and rally their supporters behind candidates who can help prevent an RN total victory.

The French Prime Minister, Gabriel Attal, reiterated Macron's message that this is now about “preventing RN from having an absolute majority.”

“Tonight's lesson is that the extreme right is at the gates of power,” he said in a statement from the government headquarters, before emphasizing: “If we want to live up to French destiny, we must prevent the worst from happening.”

The leader of the ultra-leftist formation La Francia Insumisa (LFI), Jean Luc Mélenchon, one of the members of the New Popular Front and the leftist leader most critical of Macron, echoed those sentiments.

“In all circumstances our slogan is clear: not one more vote for the RN, not one more seat for the RN,” said Mélenchon, who announced that his party will withdraw candidates in the second round if that helps prevent a far-right candidate is elected.

Former socialist president François Hollande, who served as the head of state between 2012 and 2017, also called for “a union that is as broad as possible” so that all voters “beyond the left,” could come together to defend the more centrist, long standing values ​​of the French Republic.

Hollande, who returned to active politics and has qualified as the leader of his constituency for the second round, expressed concerns that Macron “seems to have faded” and that his majority “is in tatters.”

Participation on Sunday reached 66%, the highest figure in a first round in legislative elections since 1981, a sign that the early election generated great interest among the French electorate.