PARIS (AP) — French opposition parties made last-minute deals Tuesday to try to block a landslide victory for Marine Le Pen's far-right National Rally in Sunday's second round of legislative elections, as she said her party would take the helm of government only if it wins an absolute majority — or close to it.
The National Rally, under party president Jordan Bardella, secured the most votes in the first round of the surprise legislative elections on June 30 but not enough to claim overall victory.
“We cannot accept going into government if we cannot act," Le Pen said in an interview Tuesday with public broadcaster France Inter. “It would be the worst betrayal of our voters.”
However, Le Pen said that if her party was only a few lawmakers short, “we will try to go get them.”
“If we have, say, 270 lawmakers, we need 19 more, we will go to others and ask them if they are ready to participate with us in a new majority,” Le Pen said. “If we have a majority then, we will go do what voters have elected us to do.”
Round one on Sunday propelled the National Rally closer than ever to government but also left open the possibility that voters could yet block its path to power in the second and final round on July 7.
Le Pen's party and its opponents in the left-wing alliance of the New Popular Front as well as President Emmanuel Macron's weakened centrists are all seeking to deny the far right an absolute majority by rallying supporters in high-stakes campaigning this week.
The National Rally and its allies could secure a working majority in parliament in the final round on Sunday. Or they could fall short, stymied at the last hurdle by opponents who still hope to prevent the formation of France’s first far-right government since World War II.
To that effect, an exceptionally large number of left-wing and centrist candidates who qualified for round two have stepped aside to favor the candidate most likely to win against a National Rally opponent.
According to a count by French newspaper Le Monde, nearly 200 candidates supposed to compete in Sunday’s second round have pulled out.
Of those, 124 were on the left, and 69 came from the Macron-led centrist alliance Ensemble, Le Monde counted. Candidates have until 6 p.m. local time to withdraw their name from their local constituency.
“We have one objective today (and that) to deny an absolute majority to the National Rally,” said François Ruffin of the hard-left France Unbowed party that is part of the new National Front alliance along with French greens, Socialists and Communists.
On the campaign trail, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal appeared at a food market where he spoke with fruit and vegetable sellers, posed for a few selfies and made a toast "to victory.”
“I need to prevent the National Rally from achieving an absolute majority in the National Assembly because it would be — and I say it from the bottom of my gut — it would be terrible for the country and the French,” Attal said.
Le Pen also spoke of a potential ban on the Muslim headscarf — a long-favored issue of her party.
Le Pen said she is still in favor of banning the headscarf in public but that the official decision warrants “presidential authority.”
“There are a number of issues regarding Islamist ideologies and the headscarf is only one of them,” she said.
Macron dissolved the National Assembly and called the snap election on June 9, after a stinging defeat at the hands of the National Rally in French voting for the European Parliament. The deeply unpopular and weakened president gambled that the far right would not repeat that success when the country’s own fate was in the balance.
But Macron’s plan backfired. He is now accused, even by members of his own camp, of having opened a door for the National Rally by calling voters back to the ballot box, especially when so many are angry over inflation, the cost of living, immigration and at Macron himself.
The far right tapped into voter frustration with inflation and low incomes and a sense that many French families are being left behind by globalization. Le Pen’s party campaigned on a platform that promised to raise consumer spending power, slash immigration and take a tougher line on European Union rules.
The National Rally's opponents fear for civil liberties if the party, which has a history of racism, xenophobia antisemitism and hostility to France's Muslims, takes power. It plans to boost police powers and curtail the rights of French citizens with dual nationality to work in some defense, security and nuclear-industry jobs.
Macron himself warned that the far right could set France on a path to civil war.
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