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Le Pen, Macron and Mélenchon dealing with very different hangovers
Emmanuel Macron’s election gamble spectacularly backfired, leaving his centrist alliance trailing the far right and far left
PARIS — Voters have spoken in the first round of the crucial French legislative election, paving the way for a tense, uncertain week of campaigning before the runoff next Sunday.
Projections based on exit polls show an absolute majority is within reach for Marine Le Pen’s National Rally. That would force Emmanuel Macron, the French president, into appointing the first democratically elected far-right government in France’s modern history.
But as Le Pen put it Sunday, “nothing is won” for her party.
Who will compete in the second round remains unclear. It will depend on how each party acts in the face of a possible far-right win, leaving key political players with burning headaches in the days before the final round.
Here’s what the results mean for the main players:
Marine Le Pen: Looking strong
The National Rally is on course to obtain its strongest-ever finish in the first round of a nationwide election. It is likely to have won dozens of seats even before the second round once the final results are tallied, including that of its presidential candidate Marine Le Pen, who secured her seat with more than 50 percent of the vote in her home turf of Hénin-Beaumont, in Northern France.
Her sister, Marie-Caroline Le Pen, finished first in the western region of Sarthe, in what used to be a bastion of more conventional center-right candidates.
