Voting for the second phase of the National Assembly will be held in France today. Earlier, elections were held on 30 June. In this, the right-wing party National Rally (NR) got the highest 35.15% votes. The left-wing New Popular Front (NFP) coalition was in second place. It got 27.99% votes. At the same time, Macron’s Renaissance Party managed to get only 20.76% votes.
Today only those candidates can stand who have got more than 12.5 percent votes in the first phase. To get a majority in the National Assembly, any party needs to win 289 seats. The term of the French Parliament was to end in 2027, but due to a big defeat in the European Union, President Macron dissolved the Parliament ahead of time this month.
In fact, the Macron government was running on the support of a coalition. His coalition had only 250 seats and every time he had to garner support from other parties to pass the law. Currently, the right-wing party National Rally (NR) has 88 seats in the Parliament. American news channel CNN has estimated that the right-wing party NR will win 230-280 seats out of 577 seats after the second phase of voting. The leftist NFP may get 125-165 seats.
Macron will remain in office even if he loses
Macron’s Renaissance Party and his alliance are likely to get only 70 to 100 seats. Even if Macron’s Renaissance Party loses in the National Assembly elections, Macron will remain in office. Macron has already said that no matter who wins, he will not resign from the post of President.
In fact, after the defeat in the European Union elections, if Macron’s party loses in the Parliament too, then there may be pressure on him to leave the post of President. Therefore, Macron has already made it clear that he will not leave his post.
Election process in France
Like India, France also has 2 houses of Parliament. The upper house of Parliament is called the Senate and the lower house is called the National Assembly. Members of the National Assembly are elected by the general public, while members of the Senate are elected by the members of the National Assembly and officials.
European Parliament elections were held this month in which Macron’s party got less than 15% of the votes. Whereas, the National Rally got 31.4% of the votes. Macron suddenly dissolved the Parliament even before the election results came out. Macron said he could not continue to rule as if nothing had happened.