Photo: Collected
French voters flocked to the polls in numbers not seen for decades on Sunday for the first round of snap parliamentary elections which could see the far-right party of Marine Le Pen take power in a historic first. President Emmanuel Macron stunned the nation by calling snap polls after the far-right National Rally (RN) party trounced his centrist forces in European Parliament elections this month.
But the gamble risks backfiring, with Macron's alliance predicted in opinion polls to come only third behind the rampant RN and a new leftist New Popular Front (NFP). Julien Martin, a 38-year-old architect, voting in the southwestern city of Bordeaux, said: "These are not easy elections, the results are very uncertain, and the repercussions could be serious for society."
With the French facing their most polarising choices in recent history, turnout soared, with 59.39 percent casting their vote by 5:00 pm (1500 GMT), the interior ministry said, some 20 points higher than at the same stage in the last such polls in 2022.
This would equate to a final turnout of 67.5-69.7 percent when polling stations close this evening, the highest participation in a regular format legislative election in France since 1981, according to projections by several polling organisations.
The final turnout in 2022 was just 47.5 percent.
Messenger/Disha
