https://www.zerohedge.com/geop...akes-election-begins

Voters across mainland France have begun casting ballots Sunday in the first round of exceptional parliamentary elections that could put France’s government in the hands of nationalist parties.

The outcome of the two-round elections, which will wrap up on July 7, could impact European financial markets, Western support for Ukraine, and how France’s nuclear arsenal and global military force are managed.

Many French voters are frustrated about inflation and economic concerns, as well as President Emmanuel Macron’s leadership, which they see as arrogant and out-of-touch with their lives. Marine Le Pen’s nationalist National Rally party has dominated all pre-election opinion polls.

A new coalition on the left, the New Popular Front, is also posing a challenge to Mr. Macron and his centrist alliance Together for the Republic.

There are 49.5 million registered voters who will choose 577 members of the National Assembly, France’s influential lower house of parliament, during the two-round voting.

Turnout at midday at the first round stood at 25.9 percent according to interior ministry figures, which is higher from the 2022 legislative elections at this time of the day. It was 18.43 percent at midday two years ago.

Mr. Macron voted at a polling station in Le Touquet, a small seaside town in northern France, along with his wife, Brigitte Macron. Earlier, Ms. Le Pen cast her ballot in her party’s stronghold in northern France.

The vote takes place during the traditional first week of summer vacation in France, and absentee ballot requests were at least five times higher than in the 2022 elections.

After a blitz campaign, voting began early in France’s overseas territories, and polling stations opened in mainland France at 8 a.m. (0600 GMT) Sunday. The first polling projections are expected at 8 p.m. (1800 GMT), when the final polling stations close, and early official results are expected later Sunday night.

Voters who turned out in person at a Paris polling station said issues from immigration to inflation and the rising cost of living were on their minds.

“People don’t like what has been happening,” said Cynthia Justine, a 44-year-old voter. “People feel they’ve lost a lot in recent years. People are angry. I am angry.”

Mr. Macron called the early elections after his party was trounced in the European Parliament election earlier in June by the National Rally.

Pre-election polls suggested that the National Rally party is gaining support and has a chance at winning a parliamentary majority. In that scenario, Mr. Macron would be expected to name 28-year-old National Rally President Jordan Bardella as prime minister in a power-sharing system known as “cohabitation.”

While Mr. Macron has said he won’t step down before his presidential term expires in 2027, cohabitation would weaken him at home and on the world stage.

The results of the first round will give a picture of overall voter sentiment, but not necessarily of the overall makeup of the next National Assembly. Predictions are extremely difficult because of the complicated voting system, and because parties will work between the two rounds to make alliances in some constituencies or pull out of others.

The party has also questioned the right to citizenship for people born in France and wants to curtail the rights of French citizens with dual nationality.

In the restive French Pacific territory of New Caledonia, polls closed at 5 p.m. local time due to an 8 p.m.-to-6 a.m. curfew that authorities on the archipelago have extended until July 8.

Violence there flared on May 13, leaving nine people dead after two weeks of unrest, due to attempts by Mr. Macron’s government to amend the French Constitution and change voting lists in New Caledonia, which the Indigenous Kanaks feared would further marginalize them. They have long sought to break free from France, which first took the Pacific territory in 1853.

Voters in France’s other overseas territories from Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon, Saint-Barthélemy, Saint-Martin, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Guyana, French Polynesia, and those voting in offices opened by embassies and consular posts across the Americas cast their ballots on Saturday.

The Europeans are finally starting to wake up to the fact they've been sold down the river by left leaning governments.
Watch this spread to other countries in the region.
All the leftists can claim, like they do here and elsewhere, is the world will come to an end if that happens.

Le Pen’s far-right party wins first round of French elections as Macron’s gamble backfires

https://www.france24.com/en/fr...n-s-gamble-backfires

Marine Le Pen’s anti-immigrant National Rally led a first round of voting on Sunday in exceptionally high-stakes elections that could put France’s government in the hands of a far-right party for the first time since World War II. President Emmanuel Macron’s ruling coalition was beaten into third place by a fledgling alliance of the left as the incumbent’s gamble with a snap election backfired spectacularly.

Boomerang
Sunday’s vote follows a chaotic and volatile three-week campaign – the shortest in modern French history – that saw Macron warn voters of a threat of “civil war” should they choose either of his main rivals.

Estimated at over 65%, turnout was the highest for a parliamentary vote since former president Jacques Chirac called France’s last snap election in 1997 – and suffered an equally catastrophic backlash.

Macron’s startling move to dissolve the lower house of parliament came on the heels of European parliamentary polls that saw Le Pen’s National Rally trounce the ruling party.

The president took the momentous decision against the advice of senior allies, the heads of France’s two chambers of parliament and his prime minister, who were informed of his decision at the 11th hour and were powerless to change his mind.

The abrupt call presented local officials with a logistical nightmare, coming as school summer holidays begin and with the Paris Olympics just around the corner. Gérard Larcher, the conservative head of the Senate, accused Macron of “beating up" democracy.

Hubris
Macron had hoped to frame the elections as a final showdown between his “progressive” camp and rival “populist” forces. The strategy had worked before, with voters twice rallying behind him – many reluctantly – to defeat Le Pen in presidential runoffs, in 2017 and 2022.

But instead of playing in his favor, the “clarification” he invoked as he dissolved the National Assembly has resulted in a revival of the left-right divide he thought he had banished years ago.

More at link

Macron's party will form a coalition with the extreme Left parties rather than allow Marine LePen's party to appoint the prime minister.
History points in the populists' direction, but next Sunday's "finals" will tell us if France is ready to put the populist right party in power.

The French know how to deal with recalcitrant dictators. Might be time to bring back the vegimatic

France desperately needs this.

https://x.com/liz_churchill10/.../1807756172239224854

No argument there.
You come to a country, break the laws or, seek to undermine it's laws though an insurgency, you get kicked-out. You're a parent and you have family then you should've thought of that weighty responsibility before embarking on a path of law breaking.

She is absolutely right. What a great place to start. Hopefully it will spread to here as well.

quote:

Originally posted by nhtagmember:
She is absolutely right. What a great place to start. Hopefully it will spread to here as well.

Yeah, I'm no expert on this stuff. But I think there has been a shift by young people (Gen Z) to the right that many people, especially Democrats, the MSM, and me, completely missed.

Some of that is cyclical - Regan had a lot of youthful support as well - some of that is being hit with the realization that they have been completely enslaved and there is no future for them under socialism.

Moved it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQNyA2dfzrQ



More than 50 candidates and activists assaulted during French election campaign: interior minister

https://www.france24.com/en/fr...h-legislative-runoff

France's whirlwind legislative election campaign has been marred by assault and verbal attacks, with the interior minister reporting Friday that 51 candidates or political activists had been attacked during the campaign. The final round of the crucial snap vote will take place on July 7.

More than 50 politicians and campaigners have been assaulted during the French election campaign, the interior minister said Friday, as tension mounts ahead of this weekend's runoff vote.

"This campaign is short and yet we already have 51 candidates, substitutes and activists who have been physically assaulted," Gérald Darmanin told BFMTV.

More than 30 people have been arrested, he said.

Last month, President Emmanuel Macron made the gamble of calling parliamentary elections just weeks before Paris hosts the Olympics, after the far right trounced his centrist alliance in European elections.

Darmanin said 30,000 police would be deployed on Sunday to secure the vote, including 5,000 in Paris and its suburbs.

^^^ Great video and obviously so easy to see the correlation to here.

quote:

Originally posted by Balzé Halzé:
France desperately needs this.

The world desperately needs this.

The election is laying bare the same issues the US is experiencing: Rural mouse, versus City mouse.

Non-urban electorates are not seeing their issues addressed nor, are they seeing political officials representing them in various legislatures. Urbanites, particularly Parisians are unto a world of themselves, like those living in NYC, SF/LA, WaDC, London, Paris, Rome...same deal, large disconnect with reality. Their full embrace of progressive policies, belief in borders without any control, de-funding of police and minimizing of criminal activity has pushed blue-collar, working class voters, who were traditionally sympathetic to left positions, moved them rightward.

quote:

Originally posted by sjtill:
Macron's party will form a coalition with the extreme Left parties rather than allow Marine LePen's party to appoint the prime minister.

And this is precisely what happened today.

French leftist coalition poised to pull off surprise victory to defeat nationalist Le Pen

A far-left coalition Sunday pulled off a surprise victory in the second round of France’s parliamentary elections, denying Marine Le Pen’s right-wing National Rally the overall majority portended by last week’s results, polls show.

The New Popular Front is now expected to claim between 172 to 215 seats in parliament, sparing embattled President Emmanuel Macron the indignity of a third-place finish for his centrist alliance, which is projected to finish second, exit polling showed.

Macron will still likely lose control of parliament, with his party expected to get 150 to 170 seats.

He also may soon be forced to share power with a new prime minister who opposes much of his agenda.

Macron’s term expires in 2027, and he has vowed to remain in his post regardless of the outcome of the parliamentary elections he called for last month.

The New Popular Front is a coalition comprising five left-wing political parties, ranging from moderate to extreme, which banded together to avoid splitting their vote and tilting the race in favor of Le Pen and her National Rally party.

CBS reports.

He then put the ball in Macron’s court for what comes next, saying “The president has the duty to call the New Popular Front to govern.”

CNN reports Attal has said he will submit his resignation on Monday morning.

Speaking at a press conference after the projections were made known, Attal called the results an “unprecedented political situation” which are likely to result in a great deal of tumult, decrying the three-bloc division as “not the politics of the French people.”

We must, in all this, preserve our humanity, guarantee our security, be by the side of those who believe in France,” he said.

The results are expected to be finalized by Monday, but there is no official deadline to form a new government, so it could be weeks until a new prime minister is named.

It is also not certain at this point who will take over as prime minister as no one party secured the 289 seats required for an absolute majority.

Macron did not make a statement after the polls closed, only saying he would “wait” to make any decisions about the new government.

The streets of Paris were flooded with cheering New Popular Front supporters after the results became known.

Voter turnout was the highest it’s been since 1981, with a 59.71% participation rate.

https://nypost.com/2024/07/07/...yp&utm_medium=social

Another link. I'm very disappointed!

https://www.breitbart.com/poli...=breaking_news_email