Ahead of the second round of the French legislative election scheduled for the 7th (local time), the left-wing and centrist camps have largely achieved 'candidate unification' to prevent the election of far-right party candidates.
According to the French daily Le Monde, as of 6 p.m. on the 2nd, the deadline for registering second-round candidates, 218 out of about 1,300 candidates qualified for the second round have withdrawn. Among them, 130 are from the left-wing coalition New Popular Front (NFP), formed just before the election to block the far-right party RN from coming to power, and 82 are centrist pro-government candidates centered around President Emmanuel Macron's Renaissance party. Two candidates from the Republicans and three from the far-right RN also withdrew.
The withdrawn candidates were mostly those who placed third in the first round and qualified for the second round. In particular, in the left-wing and centrist camps, the withdrawal of third-place candidates with low chances of winning confirmed a 'Republican Front'-level candidate unification to prevent the anti-far-right vote from being split. Due to this anti-far-right alliance, the number of constituencies expected to have three or more candidates has decreased from the original 311 to about 100. Conversely, the number of two-candidate constituencies has significantly increased from 190 to about 400.
Within the pro-government camp, there are voices reluctant to ally with the far-left party La France Insoumise (LFI) within the NFP, citing concerns over its pro-Hamas stance. However, calls to unite to prevent the far-right from coming to power are emerging in various places, emphasizing that blocking the far-right is the priority.
Jacques Toubon, a former minister who served under former President Jacques Chirac's right-wing government, urged in an interview with Le Monde, "All parties must do everything necessary to prevent RN from coming to power," and called for "forming a comprehensive Republican Front as soon as possible, including LFI." While he criticized LFI's stance in the Israel-Hamas war, he said, "Since a very important issue is at stake on Sunday, let's put that issue aside for now."
One thousand French historians with leftist leanings also posted an appeal in Le Monde urging voters to oppose RN. They stated, "RN is part of the history of the French far-right, formed by xenophobia, racist nationalism, anti-Semitism, violence, and contempt for parliamentary democracy," and recommended, "Vote in all constituencies to defeat RN candidates."
However, some point out that since the political colors of the left-wing and centrist camps are distinctly different, the unified candidates may not be able to secure all the votes from the existing two camps in the actual voting.
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
