French Poll Projects Win For Far-Right Party In Snap Election

France’s far-right National Rally Party was projected to win a snap election but fell short of an absolute majority in the first opinion poll published on Monday. This comes as President Emmanuel Macron dissolved the country’s National Assembly and called for snap legislative elections after his Renaissance party faced a major defeat in the 705-member European Parliament election.

The survey conducted by Toluna Harris Interactive for Challenges, M6, and RTL, predicted that Marine Le Pen’s anti-immigration, eurosceptic National Rally party, known as RN, would win 235 to 265 seats in the National Assembly. This would mark a huge jump from its current 88 but fall short of the 289 needed for an absolute majority. Meanwhile, Macron’s centrist alliance would see its number of lawmakers possibly halve, from 250 to 125-155. It also said that Leftwing parties could together control 115 to 145 seats, though each party could run on its own.

Elections to be held in 2 rounds

Article 12 of the French constitution enables the President to dissolve the Assemblée Nationale to resolve any sort of “political crisis”. This could include “permanent and irreconcilable differences” between the legislative and the executive wing of the parliament. The constitution mandates that the voters be called to the polls 20 to 40 days after the assembly is dissolved. As per Macron’s announcement, the elections will be held in two phases on June 30 and July 7.