Legislature in France One hundred candidates withdraw to obstruct the far right

These candidates are competing in triangles (three qualified candidates), and came in third place in the electoral districts that the far-right National Rally party may be able to win on Sunday.

In total, 311 of the 577 electoral districts fall into a triangular (306) or potential quadrangular (5) position, including 161 districts where the National Front and its allies came first.

Among the candidates who have announced their withdrawal at this stage are the majority of representatives of the leftist New Popular Front coalition.

For example, in Normandy (west), a candidate from the New National Party is withdrawing in favour of former Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne, who is affiliated with Macron.

The left also partially put its internal differences aside for the occasion, with withdrawals in some constituencies where two candidates were running (the New National Party and the dissident Left), such as in the southern Paris region or in Marseille (south).

From the camp of President Emmanuel Macron, three candidates for ministers decided to withdraw (Sabrina Agreste Robach, Marie Giffeno, and Fadela Khattabi).

During a meeting with members of his government on Monday afternoon, Macron did not give them clear instructions to withdraw, according to several ministerial sources.

But, according to one of the participants, he told them that “not a single vote should go” to the far right, recalling that the left had mobilized against the National Front in 2017 and 2022, allowing him to be elected president twice. .

“Don’t be mistaken. It is the far right that is about to reach the highest positions, not anyone else.”