The left defies expectations in French elections

On Sunday night, in big cities like Paris and Marseille, France, vast crowds of left-leaning voters exploded in cheers as legislative election results came in. The far-right had been stopped. 

The far-right party, National Rally, was expected to win the most seats — with the possibility of an outright majority — after its surprise victory in round one a week ago. Instead, the party came in last, behind a coalition of far-left parties. President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist group quickly formed a unified front, teaming up with a singular goal of defeating National Rally candidates in every voting block.

But as celebrations roared across France, in Perpignan, not even a horn honk or a hoot from a balcony could be heard. Most locals there and the surrounding hill towns support the far-right party, and the results left them little to cheer for.

“We need a firm hand in power,” said Esperance Martinez, a retiree who volunteered at a polling station on Sunday in the rural town of Millas. “There’s too much crime, drugs, rapes and murder,” she said.

According to French police statistics, violent crime is up in France. It rose by more than 50% between 2016 and 2023.

“These days in France, it’s becoming like the US with no-go zones,” said Laurence Noguera, a voter. “Our vote is driven entirely by fear. Fear for our kids and our grandkids.” She added that “most Muslims are upstanding people. It’s just a few bad apples that have stigmatized them all.”

Neither Noguera nor Martinez would say who they voted for. But demonizing Muslims, and foreigners in general, has long been the National Rally’s rallying cry.

In the nearby hamlet of Loch, a woman named Mina Saphie had just finished voting when The World ran into her. She said that France needs to change.

“Foreigners get all the government help,” Saphie said, “and those who work get nothing. There are French people on the streets. And that is an injustice.”

If the National Rally had won, its leader, Marine Le Pen, would have promised to prioritize French citizens, giving them preference over outsiders for jobs and government assistance.

But none of that was enough against a new, hastily-hewn leftist coalition that teamed up for round two with President Macron’s centrist candidates. There were hints of that Sunday, even within this bastion of the far-right.

The left-center alliance worked, with the far-left New Popular Front winning the most votes, Macron’s Together coalition placing second and National Rally third, effectively becoming fenced out of power.

But if halting radical rights was tricky enough, forming a government among anti-capitalists, communists, socialists and centrists could be even more daunting. Macron, suffering in the polls, must show strong leadership to find common ground.

Yet, the first politician to address the nation on television after polls closed was not Macron, but the outspoken leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon of the eco-leftist, Euro-skeptic France Unbowed Party. His first demand was the prime minister’s job for his faction and the right to form a new government.

However, who the next prime minister will be might still need to be discovered, as is whether they can work with a centrist president to get stuff done.