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Last night, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, speaking on TF1 television, asked all groups to
join forces to block the far right from winning an outright majority.
He even suggested that in some cases that might mean voting for
a far-left France Unbowed candidate — because the far right is the only
group within spitting distance of taking control of the National
Assembly.
But this morning, in Le Figaro,
Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said he would refuse to vote for a
far-left candidate. “We do not fight the RN with the values of France
Unbowed,” he said.
It will be interesting to see whose advice voters follow on Sunday.
We
may not have the numbers on the tactical withdrawal by candidates who
placed third in the first round for some time after the deadline since
the information will need to be centralized. But Le Monde has given it a
go by trying to estimate who will fall off the ballot based on
statements either by the candidates themselves or by their parties.
As of noon today, Le Monde had counted 195 candidates
that it expects to have pulled out, of which 124 were from the left and
69 from Macron’s bloc. It also noted that at least one candidate for
the National Rally had pulled out.
There’s another twist in this story. Jordan Bardella, the National Rally president, said on Monday evening that he’s doing deals of his own with some candidates of the center-right Republicans party. If there are agreements, we could see a few more National Rally candidates drop out to support those Republicans.
In short, the maneuvering isn’t done yet.