France is voting in the second and final
round of snap parliamentary elections
you're looking at live pictures as polls
have just opened in France the result
could produce the country's first
far-right government since World War II
Marine leen's anti-immigration National
rally stands a chance of winning a
majority for the first time but the
outcome remains
uncertain the rise of the far-right
national rally has been the main talking
point in this campaign let's see how we
got here and what's at stake for France
and the rest of the
world today's vote started with a
crushing defeat for president Emanuel
macron's Renaissance party at the hands
of the far-right and European elections
to clarify the political situation he
dissolved Parliament and called a snap
legislative poll a gamble that the
country was not ready to vote in a
far-right
government a gamble that seemed
increasingly risky after the far right
National rally easily took the lead in
the first round of voting last Sunday
the question now is whether they'll win
an outright majority in the runoff
enough to rule without forming a
coalition that possibility frightens
many and inspired more than 200 Centrist
and left-wing candidates to pull out of
the second round earlier this week to
avoid splitting the anti-national rally
vote the mood in Paris has been both
anxious and angry
the decision by m isn't thought through
it's immature he shot himself in the
foot he shot in the feet of all the
French he's put everyone into this
impossible situation plunged everyone
into a deep mess we're all in the same
mess I think people are just really fed
up and deeply frustrated given that
under President M's two terms we've seen
an explosion of the far right even
though one of the promises of the
president in 2017 and
2022 was to set up a barrage against the
far right the call for SNAP elections
was meant to help the governing
centrists against the far-right but had
the unintended side effect of
revitalizing the French left which
formed a new Coalition overcoming
Decades of bickering and
disagreements the leftwing Coalition
called the new popular front pulled
behind the national rally in the first
round but still well ahead of macron's
party the far right campaigned largely
on an anti-immigration platform and on
pocketbook issues pledging to lower
energy taxes for instance but if it
comes to power its historic animosity to
the European Union and to Nato could
have major International effects in
France for the fire right to arrive in
power in such a major this is the second
biggest economy within U within the
European Union this is one of the
world's biggest it's military Powers um
it's greatly involved in Ukraine it's
involved in Africa um it's uh it's a
country that that that really you know
projects itself well beyond its borders
no matter what happens macron will still
be president his term runs until
2027 but in the event of a right-wing
Victory or a hung Parliament where no
party or Coalition gets a majority his
powers will be diminished and he'll be
stuck with the new government for at
least a year
the minimum before he can theoretically
dissolve parliament and call new
elections
again we're joined Now by DW
correspondent Sonia felar in Paris Sonia
what's the chatter in political circles
could the national rally win an absolute
majority well this is an absolute
pivotal day of voting uh today in France
uh with the farri right National rally
really in an unprecedented position of
strength going into the second and final
round of voting but we have seen in
recent days frantic efforts by the
leftwing alliance the new popular front
and macron Centrist Alliance to really
block the far right their strategy has
been to you know withdraw candidates
from three-way runoffs and uniting
behind the remaining Contender that has
the best chance to block uh to defeat
the the far right national uh candidate
um and this seems to be paying off so
far opinion polls show that the the
national rally May get just above 200
seats in Parliament that's a well short
of the 289 seats required uh for an
absolute majority but there are still a
lot of unknowns today one big concern is
that not all of Marron centrus allies
have United behind the strategy to block
the far right we've heard from lawmakers
who've you know equated the left with
the far right in terms of extremist
policies there are concerns that this
could prevent some centrus voters today
from voting for the left in runoffs uh
uh against the far right and so I think
a lot today depends on whether voters
will heed this call by mainstream Pary
um to block the far right really hold
their noses and vote for candidates who
are really far removed from their
initial choice in the first round Sonia
we're hearing the campaign's been marked
by threats and even some physical
violence what can you tell
us that's right I mean this campaign has
been you know really kind of shorted
intense and really polarizing we've
heard from interior Minister Gerald
dmana who says 51 candidates or their
deputies and party activists have been
physically attacks so far by people of
weying backgrounds the French media have
been reporting about a spike in hate
speech and racist incidents across
France uh during this campaign to give
you just a couple of examples there are
reports of pamphlets targeting black
people that have appeared in mailboxes
in a Paris suburb recently um in the
southern city of aino um there is a
local bakery that uh reportedly hired an
apprentice from the Ivory Coast that
breaker was targeted with racist slogans
and set on fire and experts have really
expressed concern that a surge of you
know support for the farri right now
seems to be making some people
comfortable with using racist and xenop
phobic language openly in public life
we've also seen a few candidates of the
farite national rally being engulfed in
controversy some of them posting hate
messages racist speech and social media
posts and to add to all this that are
fears of violence tonight in Paris and
other cities regardless of the outcome
of the vote security here has already
been tied for the Olympics it's being
beefed up further tonight with more than
30 th000 officers on the ground so the
second round of voting is certainly
taking place in a very charged
atmosphere uh pece made a quick
reference to this but explain what
happens if neither the national rally
nor any other party gets an absolute
majority well pollsters are saying that
is a likely outcome a hung Parliament
where neither party gets a majority we
could be potentially headed uh for
gridlock or a stalemate in France which
is the second largest economy
um in Europe one option we could see is
uh you know uh the government trying to
set up some kind of a grand Coalition or
a government of national Unity though
there are concerns about you know how
fast that could happen another option
for mro could be to Cobble together a
government an a political government of
experts and technocrats much like Italy
did uh in the past but there are
concerns about you know whether whether
this would require compromise
negotiation there are concerns about how
that government would survive I think
the immediate concern for France is to
have some kind of government in place uh
during the Paris Olympics which take
place at the end of the month our thanks
to Sonia focar in Paris