By Athena Paapakosta

What seemed unthinkable a long time ago is now a fact in France. The Far Right it is a step before assuming power in France for the first time since the pro-Nazi Vichy regime under Philippe Pétain.

The party founded by Marine Le Pen’s Holocaust denier father Jean-Marie Le Pen and ex-Waffen-SS Pierre Bouquier in the 1980s took first place in the first round of France’s early parliamentary elections.

In particular, gathering 34.2%, according to the TV station TF1, the pre-election estimates were confirmed and the far-right “National Rally” is making a comeback, stronger than ever. in a country in existential crisis.

In second place with 29.1% is the New People’s Front of the parties of the Left, in third place the master of chaos, the president of France, Emmanuel Macron with 21.5% and in fourth place the Republicans with 10%.

“We haven’t won yet. The second round of early parliamentary elections will be crucial. We need an absolute majority so that Jordan Bardela, in eight days, will be sworn in as prime minister by Emmanuel Macron,” said Marine Le Pen, addressing her voters from the town of Hennes-Beaumont in northern France.

The absolute majority is “measured” in 289 seats and according to estimates the National Rally is expected in the second round on July 7 to win from 230 to 280. Correspondingly, the Left is expected to gather from the total 577 seats of the French National Assembly 125 to 165 and the Macron faction from 70 to 100 .

Without the absolute majority, the National Coalition will not be able to “pass” either its immigration plans that obey the once known as “France for the French” doctrine, nor the tax breaks it has promised.

The French president has already called on the democratic and republican forces to unite against the extreme right. According to a written statement issued by the Elysee, Emmanuel Macron also underlined that “the high turnout in the first round proves how important the elections were for our fellow citizens and how much they want the political situation to be clarified.”

For his part, the Prime Minister of France and head of the election campaign on behalf of the faction close to President Macron, Gabriel Attal, said: “not a single vote should go to the National Alarm” while he explained that “France deserves not to hesitate to do everything to prevent the worst from happening.”

The withdrawal signal for the party’s third-placed candidates, so as not to elect Le Pen candidates, was dropped so that, as Atal pointed out, they would support “another candidate who defends the values ​​of the Republic”.

“I want to be prime minister of all the French” said Jordan Bardela on Sunday night, as thousands turned out in Paris, Lyon, Lille, Nantes and Strasbourg to demonstrate against the National Rally he leads. In fact, in Paris, the crowd gathered in the Place de la République where leaders of the Left spoke.

The leader of the radical left, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, has also been clear. “Not a single vote in favor of the National Rally” he emphasized and made it clear that the left will withdraw all its candidates who come third. In the same dance and the Socialists with Raphael Glicksman declaring that “we have seven days to save France from destruction”.

Now analysts are turning their attention to whether the democratic front traditionally formed against the extreme right in the country will endure, while already several MPs of the National Rally have been elected in the first round, including Marine Le Pen, with its leader Communist Party, for example, Fabien Roussel to be kept out of the French National Assembly by far-right candidate Guillaume Florcan.

The rise of the far-right National Rally since the last parliamentary elections, in 2022, is unprecedented. Le Pen’s party garnered almost 12 million votes in the first round, compared to 4.2 million votes received two years ago. And all this in a France where 67.5% of the French voted, recording the highest percentage of participation since 1981.