Le Pen sets sights on revenge in parliament elections

National Rally leader vows to run candidates in every constituency

MARINE LE PEN has set her sights on France’s parliamentary elections as she seeks to cement the National Rally party’s role as the main opposition to Emmanuel Macron.

Riding on the momentum of April’s presidential polls, in which she scored more than 41 per cent of the final vote, the Right-wing leader plans to run candidates in every constituency in June’s vote.

“Our objective is clear: send the maximum number of patriotic deputies to the assembly,” said Jordan Bardella, the acting party president.

While the party currently has seven seats in the lower house of parliament, some early polls predict it could set a new best by gaining up to 105 out of 577 available seats.

“We are in a very different situation this time because we came out on top in 159 constituencies [in the presidential election], compared to 45 in 2017,” said Gilles Pennelle, a party delegate who is planning to run in Brittany.

However, analysts warn that with the election weeks away and key party coalitions yet to be formed, polls should be taken with caution. “It’s like trying to take a picture in the dark,” said Gilles Paris, a journalist at Le Monde.

Despite Ms Le Pen securing more than 13million votes in the presidential race, a mix of factors – including high abstention rates and a tworound voting system – means the party may struggle.

Like presidential elections, legislative elections in France are held in two rounds. Candidates who win more than 12.5 per cent of the vote in each constituency then go to a run-off, which has traditionally put the hard-Right at a disadvantage.

“We have in France what you call the ‘republican front,’ where voters choose to block the far-Right in the second round,” said Mr Paris.

Another hurdle will be finding enough viable candidates to run in every constituency. The party is still haunted by a 2017 Buzzfeed investigation, which found evidence of about 100 candidates sharing content on social media deemed as homophobic, racist, anti-Semitic, or Islamophobic.

This time around, the party has promised it is closely screening “serious, responsible people who agree with Marine Le Pen’s programme”.

Voter turnout is also traditionally low in legislative elections, particularly among voters on the Right.

“There is a feeling that the main choice has been made,” said Bruno Cautrès, a political scientist at Sciences Po University. “So it becomes especially difficult for the losing parties to remobilise themselves and their voters.”

Mr Macron’s La Republique en Marche party is expected to reclaim its absolute majority, taking anywhere from 328 to 368 votes. The Left-wing parties, meanwhile, are in negotiations to form a coalition that, if successful, could also pose a serious threat to the reelected president.

Parties from the greens to the communists are uniting behind Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the far-Left firebrand who came third in the presidential race and is calling to be made prime minister.

In a clear sign that he was starting to take the Left vote seriously ahead of the legislative elections, the centrist Mr Macron visited the socialist-held working class Paris suburb of Cergy on Wednesday, where he urged voters to give him a chance.