Over 200 French election candidates bow out in bid to block far right in runoff
Opponents of France’s National Rally (RN) stepped up their bid to block the far-right party from power on Tuesday as more candidates agreed to pull out of this weekend’s run-off election to avoid splitting the anti-RN vote.
More than 200 candidates have confirmed they will not stand in Sunday’s second-round for France’s 577-seat national parliament, according to local media estimates. Others have until 6 p.m. (1600 GMT) to make their choice.
‘Republican front’
France prepares for snap election after Macron’s EU defeat
Assuming no group has a clear majority after Sunday, politicians across the spectrum have proposed various ways of proceeding to see out the remainder of Macron’s presidency.
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Prime Minister Gabriel Attal suggested mainstream right, left and center parties could form ad hoc alliances to vote through individual pieces of legislation in the new parliament.
Xavier Bertrand, a senior member of the center-right Republicans (LR) party, called on Tuesday for a “provisional government” to run France until the next presidential election.
In a foretaste of the sour mood that would prevail in the event of a powersharing “cohabitation” between Macron and an RN-led government, Le Pen referred to media speculation that he was planning to make key public sector appointments aimed at preventing the RN from implementing its policies.
While not saying she had any evidence that was the case, Le Pen said any such move would amount to an “administrative coup.” In a statement, Macron’s office said only that discussions on such appointments had been held at weekly cabinet meetings for 66 years and there was no plans to change that arrangement.
