The deadline for the candidates of the leftist alliance and the centrist coalition to submit their resignations from the second round of the French elections has passed with the final number reaching 218.

In particular, 130 candidates resigned from the New People’s Front, while 82 from the camp of the French president, Emmanuel Macron.

It is noted that at the end of the first round, three candidates were elected in 306 districts for the second round.

The very high turnout in Sunday’s election of 67% allowed those who garnered more than 12.5% ​​of registered voters to advance to the second round.

The tactic of withdrawals is intended to unify the forces opposed to National Rally into a single bloc and avoid a split in order to prevent the far-right party from winning.

Both Macron and Prime Minister Gabriel Atal had called on a large number of candidates to withdraw from local races, with many in the centrist camp opposed to backing candidates from the left.

Marine Le Pen’s National Rally came out on top in Sunday’s first-round election, leaving Macron’s centrist camp in third place behind second-placed New Popular Front.

“Democratic Front”

There was initial confusion over whether Macron’s allies would give up their districts in favor of rival candidates who came second from Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s radical left LFI party.

However, Macron told a closed-door meeting of ministers at the Elysee Palace on Monday that the top priority was to oust the RN from power and that LFI candidates should be supported.

The “republican front” has worked in the past, such as in 2002 when voters of all stripes rallied behind Jacques Chirac to defeat Le Pen’s father, Jean-Marie, in a presidential contest.

However, it is not certain that voters are willing to follow instructions from political leaders about who to vote for, while Marine Le Pen’s efforts to soften her party’s image have succeeded.

A survey by Ifop showed that a small majority of those who voted mainstream conservative in the first round would support the left-wing candidate to beat the RN’s in the second round unless that candidate was from Mélenchon’s LFI.

Le Pen on Tuesday reiterated her claim that the RN would not attempt to form a government if it did not have a working majority in parliament, but added that this could include reaching out to allies if the RN itself falls short of 289 seats.

In the event that no one wins an outright majority on Sunday, politicians from across the spectrum have proposed various ways for the government to function.

Prime Minister Gabriel Atal proposed that the main right, left and center parties form ad hoc alliances to pass individual bills in the new parliament.

Xavier Bertrand, a senior figure in the center-right Republican (LR) party, called on Tuesday for an “interim government” to be formed until the next presidential election.