07 July 2024 , 17:16
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Voting started at 8am this morning in France and will finish up at 8pm when voting estimates will be released - but the democratic event has been overshadowed by rioting in Paris
France is bracing for more chaos as the second round of parliamentary voting begins which is expected to see the far-right rise to power.
The French public started heading to the polls at around 8am local time with booths staying open until 8pm tonight. But the democratic event has been marred by widespread rioting, with major high street retailers seen barricading their stores with wooden boards and shutters.
Left-wing rioters are enraged by the rise of Marine Le Pen’s National Rally, and police are locking down several central areas of Paris where it’s expected that protests could erupt. Among them are Rue de Rivoli, the Opera area and the Champs-Elysees.
France’s Interior Minister said that another 30,000 officers will be deployed across the whole of France. Five thousand of them will be in Paris to deal with the potential unrest.
In yesterday’s election, the RN netted 33 per cent of the vote, while the left-wing New Popular Front alliance secured 28 per cent. Emmanuel Macron’s centrists trailed behind with just 20 per cent.
This election campaign saw unprecedented levels of racism and antisemitism, Russian cybercampaigns and attacks on more than 50 candidates.
The heightened tensions come while France is celebrating a very special summer: Paris is about to host exceptionally ambitious Olympic Games, the national soccer team reached the semifinal of the Euro 2024 championship, and the Tour de France is racing around the country alongside the Olympic torch.
As of noon local time, turnout was at 26.63%, according to France’s interior ministry, slightly higher than the 25.90% reported at the same time during the first round last Sunday.
Demonstrators at the Monument a la Republique ( Image: AFP via Getty Images)
The elections could leave France with its first far-right government since the Nazi occupation in World War II if the National Rally wins an absolute majority and its 28-year-old leader Jordan Bardella becomes prime minister. The party came out on top in the previous week’s first-round voting, followed by a coalition of centre-left, hard-left and Green parties, and Macron’s centrist alliance.
Pierre Lubin, a 45-year-old business manager, was worried about whether the elections would produce an effective government.
"This is a concern for us," Lubin said. "Will it be a technical government or a coalition government made up of (various) political forces?"
The outcome remains highly uncertain. Polls between the two rounds suggest that the National Rally may win the most seats in the 577-seat National Assembly but fall short of the 289 seats needed for a majority. That would still make history, if a party with historic links to xenophobia and downplaying the Holocaust, and long seen as a pariah, becomes France’s biggest political force.
A boy waving a French flag at the monument ( Image: AFP via Getty Images)
If it wins the majority, Macron would be forced to share power with a prime minister who deeply disagrees with the president’s domestic and foreign policies, in an awkward arrangement known in France as "cohabitation."
Another possibility is that no party has a majority, resulting in a hung parliament. That could prompt Macron to pursue coalition negotiations with the centre-left or name a technocratic government with no political affiliations.
Shop windows boarded up ahead of the protests ( Image: Anadolu via Getty Images)
No matter what happens, Macron’s centrist camp will be forced to share power. Many of his alliances’ candidates lost in the first round or withdrew, meaning it doesn’t have enough people running to come anywhere close to the majority he had in 2017 when he was first elected president, or the plurality he got in the 2022 legislative vote.
Both would be unprecedented for modern France, and make it more difficult for the European Union’s No. 2 economy to make bold decisions on arming Ukraine, reforming labour laws or reducing its huge deficit.