now to France where more than 200
centrists and left-wing candidates have
pulled out of the country's
parliamentary runoff election ahead of
today's deadline the aim is to avoid
splitting the vote among Centrist and
leftwing parties in Sunday's runoff now
French president Emanuel macr hopes the
pull out will block the farri right from
winning power after his centes came
third in the first round behind a
coalition of leftwing parties and behind
the far right National rally and the
national Rally's leader Marine Leen has
celebrated its strong showing uh but
says her party won't govern unless it
has an absolute
majority of course we cannot accept
going into the government if we cannot
act what our voter ask is to change the
policies that were put in place if we
cannot change them and if we accept
going into the government just to sit
down in a Minister's chair if we cannot
act that would be for me the worst
betrayal we can do towards our
voters let's get more from Cole stangler
he's a freelance journalist based in
Marseilles in the south of France
welcome back to DW let's start with what
we just heard from Marine Leen do you do
you think she really will allow some
other party uh to become uh prime
minister if her National rally doesn't
get the majority she wants or is this
just rhetoric to get the vote
out no I mean I I think think she
certainly wants to to mobilize her base
um you know as we're getting close to
that to that second round so that's part
of it you know but another interesting
thing that that Marine Le Pen said today
is that there could potentially look to
other partners to be part of a governing
Coalition that um is is very much a kind
of gesture that's that's that's being
made towards almost certainly the the
historically mainstream rightwing party
to see if if they don't get an absolute
majority which is looking less and less
likely given those withdrawals you just
mentioned of other candidates
could the RM potentially govern with the
support of of the mainstream right the
right-wing party thatd count um I think
in any case they would absolutely want
to have a a farri prime minister and it
would be would be there's no doubt about
that that's what they're pushing for so
how is it looking do the center and left
parties have enough support to to block
the far
right yeah it's it's quite remarkable
here just really in the last couple of
days um after this very vicious uh
campaign rhetoric that we saw from uh in
large part the the micronus in
government and also the left criticizing
one another um those figures you cited
it's quite remarkable we're now in a
scenario um in which you have fewer
chances of of of of the RN actually
winning an absolute majority we're going
to have to see some polling given those
those those new the new realignment but
I think at this point it's unlikely the
RN will get an absolute majority we have
could have potentially a relative
majority could they Cobble together
something with another party or could we
potentially have some type of uh Tech
technocratic caretaker government if no
majority is formed maybe the least
likely scenario is the left the part of
the mainstream right and the maconis so
still unanswered questions but but I
think certainly that scenario of an
far-right absolute majority is looking
less and less likely after those
withdrawals without and it's interesting
what you say about perhaps a um a
coalition on the right the the the
right-wing um party here in Germany is
very much seen as a pariah and other
parties have said that they will not
work with him that sounds like that's
not the case there in
France well historically it has been the
case absolutely we can remember Jac Shak
uh in 2002 handily defeating Mar Jean
Marie Leen um historically this has been
the case but we've entered a new era of
French politics where already we've seen
the head of the historic rightwing party
say he wants to do an alliance with the
farri right he's been expelled from his
party and he's doing that Alliance but
even today uh notably did not call for
withdrawing candidates against the far
right so in that respect they had a
different line than the maconis a
different line than the left and this is
consistent what we've seen the the
mainstream right is getting more and
more pushed to the far right and at what
point will it you know will it will it
cease to exist a lot of people are
asking that question okay thanks for
talking us to that Cole stangler
freelance journalist and
author let's get more from correspondent
Rosie bir in Brussels welcome Rosie so
talk us through what's happening today
how will withdrawing candidates help to
prevent the far right from winning this
absolute majority that they
seek yeah all those parties outside the
far right are really trying to work out
not how to win the second round of these
elections but how to keep the far right
out of power and of course they are
really at the gates of power now closer
than we ever seen before in French
history now what this is all essentially
a quirk of France's two- round electoral
system because in the first round it was
a sort of open ballot so many candidates
could put themselves forward and all of
those who got 12.5% of the vote could go
through unless there were some cases
where there was already an outright
majority and a decent turnout so 577
seats overall and most of them around
500 of them are still up for grab so
it's all to play for in all those 500
constituencies now what we've seen is uh
parties which are outside the far right
so that's really from the far left to
the Cent center right of the spectrum
deciding to in some cases withdraw their
candidates back out of three horse races
to avoid splitting the vote we've seen
at least 200 candidates do this so far
but that means that there will still be
a few dozen three horse races come
Sunday and those really may be the ones
to watch and I think it will will really
be an ill biting election for for French
people as they see what could be kind of
historic changes in their country of
foot and and do you see any way for
president macron's Ensemble party to
stay in
power they will undoubtedly lose
influence there's a couple of different
scenarios of how this could play out we
could see the farri winning the absolute
majority that they've been trying to get
uh which would allow them to get into
government essentially and secure the
Prime Minister ship we could see a hung
Parliament where we have Desperate
blocks nobody having an absolute
majority nobody being able to
immediately govern and that might lead
some attempt to Coalition build from the
Centrist Camp of President maon and
listen that sounds really normal for a
lot of European countries there are
coalitions in Germany there are
coalitions here in Belgium but it is not
in any way in the Playbook of French
politicians it's not something they're
used to and the third option could be
that we end up with a technocratic
government in France so that the
president names bureaucrats unelected
officials to take over roles and really
just pursue minimalist policy all of
those options are Uncharted Territory
and May Le to some sort of political
paralysis and certainly uncertainty in
Paris zoom out for us and talk to us
about the potential effects of Sunday's
vote on Europe and perhaps
Beyond well briefly just on France I
mean that's where the effects might be
most profound because the government and
prime minister really have the bigger
sway over domestic policy and let's not
forget this party has long campaigned on
a hard anti-immigrant stance they want
to send non-french citizens in France to
the back of the CU for things like
social housing and Welfare they would
like to restrict the rights of dual
Nationals keep them from certain key
Post in for example security and let's
not forget also that the 2022 Manifesto
of marine lepen the leader of the
national rally said that she would like
to ban women from wearing Islamic head
coverings in all public spaces in France
now foreign policy zooming out that
really essentially the power there lies
in the hands of the president and
president Emanuel macron's term runs on
paper until 27 so the big foreign policy
decisions like supporting Ukraine should
in theory still lie with him still there
is almost no way to see that he doesn't
come out of this election politically
weakened if not constitutionally
challenged and I think the the question
on a lot of people's lips including I
think within his party is why on Earth
did he call these elections in the first
place he did not have to the the snap
polls were called just early in June
after the a bad showing of his party in
European elections it was seen as a big
itical gamble come Sunday we'll see if
that could pay off in any way but right
now it's really looking more like it
will backfire quite spectacularly if
according to what president iMac Emanuel
macron was seeking which was to try and
lessen the power of the far right thanks
Rosie Rosie burchard in
Brussels now many of France's European
partners are watching the election
nervously aware that a far right win
could have huge implications for the
European
Union France's national rally on a rooll
from strong showings in European
elections and the first round of
parliamentary voting in France Party
leaders Jan balela and Marine Leen
promise a France that is more French
less European that cuts across multiple
areas from foreign and military policy
to welfare spending and cooperation with
its
neighbors the national rally has long
been skeptical of Europe and NATO until
earlier this year its party program
officially called for deepening
diplomatic ties with Russia the party
received a major loan from a Russian
Bank in recent
years it wants to Halt military
cooperation projects with Germany
including jointly developed Next
Generation tanks and fighter jets the
party platform also mentioned leaving
NATO's command structure however the
party removed all that language from its
website in the runup to recent elections
and leaders have denounced Russia's
invasion of Ukraine
the question is whether moderating its
image means that the party has
fundamentally changed its
stance the national rally has promised
to stand for French financial and
economic interests above those of Europe
it wants to negotiate exceptions to some
EU rules and to Institute a national
preference for French businesses in
agriculture against eu's Common Market
rules a national rally Triumph could
kill off EU borrowing to fund defense
and transition to a green economy
critics have warned that the party's
economic plans which include cutting
taxes and raising wages will fuel
inflation and break EU deficit rules
clashes with the EU could weaken the
Euro and destabilize the whole
continent's finances the party also
wants to withhold part of France's
contribution to the EU
budget the party has long had a strong
anti-immigrant stance it's pledged to
prioritize frenchorn citizens for
welfare benefits and housing which is
also against EU rules critics say it
would formalize discrimination against
immigrants at a time when the continent
is struggling to come up with a common
immigration
policy whatever happens in the second
round of voting Emanuel maon will still
be president he'll likely have to share
power appointing a prime minister from
another party though the president
theoretically directs foreign policy the
cabinet and the National Assembly must
sign off and pay the bills setting the
stage for infighting and paralysis in
one of the eu's founding countries