French vote in legislative elections crucial to the country’s future

French people head to the polls on Sunday to vote in a historic legislative election that could bring the far-right to power or produce an uncontrollable National Assembly, but which will almost certainly change the country’s political landscape.

Since Friday evening, France has been in a period of electoral silence that put an end to campaigning and during which new polls are banned, entering France a state of truce in a charged atmosphere characterized by insults and physical assaults on candidates and banners, and the launch of racist and anti-Semitic rhetoric.

Polling stations opened at 6:00 GMT in continental France, after voters voted in the San Pierre-a-Miquelon archipelago in the North Atlantic, and Guyana, Antilles, Polynesia and New Caledonia in the South Pacific.

Voting in major cities will continue until 18:00 GMT, at which point preliminary estimates will be released.

Several opinion polls released on Friday reflected an intensifying competition between the three blocs: The National Rally and its far-right allies, the New Popular Front alliance on the left and President Emmanuel Macron’s center-right camp.

Macron plunged France into the unknown with his surprise announcement on June 9 June dissolving the National Assembly and calling for early legislative elections, after his bloc failed in the European elections.

Recent opinion polls suggest that the far-right will win 170 to 210 seats in the new National Assembly, far from the absolute majority of 289 deputies, followed by the New Popular Front with 155 to 185 seats, and Macron’s camp, which is likely to win between 95 and 125 seats.

However, pollsters are cautious as turnout is expected to be very high, perhaps even the highest in 25 years, with no known favor to which side it will be.

In an effort to block the path for the National Rally, more than two hundred candidates from the left and center withdrew from constituencies that would have witnessed a race between three candidates in the second round, boosting the chances of the opponents of the National Rally.

But do voters follow the logic of the political parties they support?

Raphael Glucksmann, a European lawmaker who topped the list of Socialists in the European elections, said that “contrary to rumors, this isn’t guaranteed at all”.

Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, who is leading the presidential camp’s campaign, warned that the danger today is a majority controlled by the extreme right, this would be a catastrophic project.

Far-right leader Marine Le Pen denounced the one-party maneuvers that bring together those who want to remain in power against the will of the people.

If she wins her bet and wins enough majority, National Rally leader Jordan Bardella, 28, who has a fiercely anti-immigration platform, will head the first far-right government known to France since World War Two.

The hypothesis has alarmed other major European partners of France, who have expressed fears that a party skeptical of European institutions known for its closeness to Russian President Vladimir Putin could run a country that is a key member of the European Union.

France’s political landscape changed dramatically in 2017 with Macron winning the presidency, defeating traditional parties.

But by dissolving the National Assembly and calling these elections on the night of June 9 in the wake of the rise of the far right and victory in the European elections, he made a failed bet that his supporters themselves cannot forgive.

The president’s camp needs a broad coalition of left as well as the anti-RND right to govern.

But on what program can such an alliance agree, described by political experts as an impossible combination of contradictions?

Faced with this uncertainty, Gabriel Attal announced that his government was ready to ensure the continuity of the state for as long as necessary and take over caretaker pending the formation of a new government, as Paris hosts the Olympics in three weeks.

Faced with possible abuses on Sunday night, 30,000 police officers will be deployed, five thousand of them in Paris alone.