Please enable JS and disable any ad blocker
France is voting on Sunday in a parliamentary election that could make history
with the far right closer to power than it has ever been in modern times
The National Rally (RN) of Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella are well ahead in the polls - three weeks to the day since they won European elections and President Emmanuel Macron reacted by calling a national vote
More than 2.6 million of France's 49 million voters have registered to vote by proxy
an indication of the high turnout expected for such a pivotal election
and most of the National Assembly's 577 seats will not be decided until the second-round run-off vote next Sunday
which quickly refined its existing promises on immigration
insecurity as well as tax cuts to tackle the cost-of-living crisis
Jordan Bardella wants to be RN's first prime minister
and his party is confident of winning dozens of constituencies outright in the first round
But he says he will only take the job if the party secures an absolute parliamentary majority of 289 seats
The alternative would be a hung parliament and stalemate
As soon as the first results come in early on Monday morning (NZT)
National Rally's opponents will have to decide who to back in run-off battles across France
in a bid to ensure that absolute majority does not happen
many of the run-offs will pit the National Rally against a hastily cobbled together left-wing alliance called New Popular Front
which believes it could even win the election
parties from across the spectrum have united to keep the far right out and voters have held their noses to do so
But RN's leaders have worked hard for years to shed their extremist image
Alongside policies for giving French citizens "national preference" for jobs and housing
they want to cut VAT on energy and allow under-30s to escape income tax
a teacher called Agnès complains about the breakdown of discipline in French schools and likes Jordan Bardella's plans for "a big bang in authority" in education
She also has no problem with RN's plans to abolish droit du sol
the right to automatic French citizenship for children born to foreign parents if those children have spent five years in France - from the age of 11 to 18 when they are entitled to apply for French citizenship
President Macron's Ensemble alliance is widely expected to haemorrhage seats
and Gabriel Attal's days as prime minister appear numbered
even though polls suggest he remains the most popular politician in France
"The Macron era is over," François Hollande declared ahead of the vote
the former French president who was Macron's boss and mentor
is standing for parliament again - now as a New Popular Front candidate
even Macron allies are angry with his snap election gamble
France was not due another election for three more years
and it had far better ways of spending the summer than going through an abbreviated and intense election campaign
The national football team faces Belgium in the last 16 of Euro 2024 on Monday, and all of France has been gearing up for the Paris Olympics which start on 27 July (NZT)
Metro stations like Concorde have been shut
and restrictions are in place close to any of the Games sites
The police and military were already stretched and the interior minister has warned of potential violence after the second round
Macron is set to meet his prime minister and other members of the government on Monday to decide their next move
Until now their mantra has been "ni-ni" - neither back RN nor the left-wing New Popular Front
because of the involvement of France Unbowed (LFI)
which is condemned by opponents as far-left and some of its members have been accused of antisemitism
President Macron has said only his Ensemble alliance has the power to block both "the extreme right and the extreme left"
He says the far right categorises people by their religion or origin
while the left judges them by the community they belong to
told supporters they were "the only focus of resistance" remaining to the rise of the far right
accusing the Macron alliance of opening the gates of power to RN
what is extreme is Macron's extreme liberalism which has brought about the rise of the extreme right," she told the BBC
The New Popular Front also includes more moderate parties
whose leader Marine Tondelier has called for a unified stance to stop Bardella becoming prime minister
Some of France's best-known young stars have urged voters to steer clear of the extremes
from NBA sensation Victor Wembanyama and football captain Kylian Mbappé to YouTube influencer Squeezie
But the divisions between the parties are deep and the time extremely short for any concerted action to keep RN at bay
She is unimpressed by the nationalist policies RN has
This story was originally published by BBC News
France's lightning-quick parliamentary election campaign is over
and despite last-ditch appeals not to back the far right
voters appear ready to hand the National Rally party a historic victory
How France's far-right double act Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella shed their party's racist reputation and stormed to victory
Calling a snap election is a huge surprise for the country
Austria and elsewhere performed strongly in a vote that will see the balance of power shift rightwards
Voters in New Caledonia are called to the polls this weekend under tight security
almost eight weeks after destructive and violent unrest broke out in the French Pacific archipelago