By Athena Papakosta

More than 200 candidates MPs who finished third in the first round of snap parliamentary elections in France they withdrew from Sunday’s crucial second round.

THE deadline to indicate whether or not they will stand as a candidate, expires at seven o’clock on Wednesday evening, French time. As an official record of the nominations was not available until late Tuesday night, the total number of all those they backed off to stop the advance of the far right Lepen was calculated, according to the French Media, between 214 and 218. This means that this Sunday of the 300 constituencies where there were three candidatesthere are now approx 108.

In the first round, her far-right party “Ethniki Sispirosis” emerged as the winner Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardelas who is currently fighting for an absolute majority in the French National Assembly.

“I see the attempts to discourage the voters in the last two days (…) how an absolute majority is not possible” noted Marine Le Pen speaking to France Inter to point out, then, that her party can succeed.

As he explained, “what the citizens said at the ballot box in the first round is ‘stop giving us moral lessons, stop telling us who we should vote for, how we should think'” adding that he hopes they will say it again in the second round .

For his part, the head of the National Rally, Jordan Bardela, who is preparing to cross the threshold of the prime minister’s residence, Matignon, characterized the union of Center and Left forces as an “alliance of shame”, thereby condemning the attempt of centrist and leftist parties to stand in the way of the far-right taking power for the first time in the country.

They hardly retreated

However, efforts by the factions that support French President Emmanuel Macron and those that make up the New Popular Front (France Insubordinate, Socialists, Greens and Communist Party) to succeed in persuading third-party candidates to withdraw in favor of the latter have been difficult. .

Mainly in the Macron camp, where the head of Insubordinate France, Jean Luc Melanchon is a red flag with some even noting that “he is worse than Le Pen” either because of his economic policy “which will lead France to bankruptcy” or because of his tough stance against Israel and the war on the Gaza Strip.

An indicative example remains the outgoing finance minister of the country, Bruno Lemairewho, although he is not running for re-election, emphasized that he does not support the vote in favor of Insubordinate France while, also the outgoing minister, Dominique Foretafter pressure withdrew from the second round underlining that, although he disagrees with the instructions of the ruling faction, he will follow them.

Asked if her party would attempt to form a government if it does not receive an absolute majority, Marine Le Pen again answered in the negative, explaining that “if we do not have the ability to act, we cannot take over the government.”

However, this time, she left open the possibility of seeking allies in the event that her party secures a marginal majority in the second round of parliamentary elections.