La gauche sauve la République

The Left Saves the Republic

Second round of legislative elections in France

After a first round in favour of the RN where everyone thought that the right-wing extremists would take power with an overwhelming majority in the hemicycle, something that did not happen, the FPN, in the second round, turned the tables with a truly unexpected result.

PCF, a participation
copy
A reality is imposed, the New Popular Front came out on top in the poll with nearly 200 seats and thwarted the scenario of an absolute majority of the National Rally in the Assembly.
It is therefore up to the President of the Republic to draw the consequences and to respect the choice and the strong expectations for change expressed by our people.
On July 7, the French people demonstrated through their vote their expectation of decent wages, quality jobs, rebuilt public services, and protection in all aspects of daily life. This cannot translate into a government formed by the forces defeated in this election.
The renewed appointment of Gabriel Attal to Matignon is a disregard for the French vote. Just as any coalition government guided by the political orientations of the presidential camp and the right would be.
Emmanuel Macron must stop the artifices that mask his failure. He must immediately allow the formation of a New Popular Front government.
The PCF calls on the millions of voters who contributed to the republican upsurge of July 7, the vital forces of the nation, the trade union organizations and the associative movement, the actors of the world of culture and creation, the youth, to act everywhere in the country to build this hope.
The PCF will play its full part in this dynamic, the only one capable of pushing back the extreme right, calming the country and opening a path to the future for France. To contribute to this, in the extension of the Democratic and Republican Left group, we are ready to form a group as in the previous mandate with its parliamentary work culture.
From today and throughout the summer, the PCF will deploy across the country to build the alternative with our fellow citizens.
Popular intervention will be more necessary than ever to combat the extreme right, whose progression in the country requires a large-scale response against xenophobic, racist and anti-Semitic ideas and the social imposture of the National Rally, as well as to impose the changes that the country is waiting for, starting with the repeal of the pension reform.

The strong push of the Popular Front
Seven days after the first round, which saw the victory of the National Rally (33.15%), more than 43.3 million French people were called to the polls again this Sunday for the second round of the legislative elections in 501 constituencies – 76 deputies having been elected or re-elected since last week. According to the final results from the Ministry of the Interior, the New Popular Front (NFP) came in first with 178 deputies, just ahead of the presidential party Renaissance and its allies MoDem and Horizons. The Macronist coalition obtained between 156 elected representatives. The RN and its allies only came in third place, credited with 142 seats. Next come Les Républicains and the various right-wing parties with 66 parliamentarians. No party therefore has an absolute majority in the National Assembly at the end of this legislative election. The New Popular Front finished in the lead in this second round and ultimately won four out of seven constituencies. Facing it, the far right tripled its 2022 score, going from one to three deputies. All week, the Marseille left had been holding out hope of winning the city’s seven constituencies. Two of them were already won on the evening of the first round, after the victories of Manuel Bompard and Sébastien Delogu (LFI). The New Popular Front had qualified in the other five. But electoral reality shattered this hope. This Monday morning, at the end of a second round marked by a high turnout (64.63%), Marseille woke up split in two, between four deputies from the New Popular Front and three from the National Rally or supported by it.
On a city scale, the left can be satisfied with having won the battle with 51.98% of the votes (not counting the two constituencies already won). In this campaign, the New Popular Front has cast a wide net. RN candidates absent from the field, refusal to debate on TV sets…
It must be said that we found conspiratorial and xenophobic excesses, like those of Monique Griseti on social networks.

The RN is progressing in Provence
The Marseille political chessboard has also seen its pawns move in the last eight days. With two “historical channel” deputies, La France Insoumise legitimately aims to have more weight in the left-wing municipal coalition – from which it is currently absent – ​​in 2026.
The social democrat Benoît Payan (the current mayor of Marseille) was delighted to have seen the victory of one of his deputies, Laurent Lhardit (PS), but also of the “purged” LFI Hendrik Davi, widely supported by most of the executives of the Marseille Spring for three weeks. Marseille resists the RN wave in the Bouches-du-Rhône, by bringing to the left four of its five deputies of the department. The RN with six more deputies in Provence, the local results of these legislative elections did not call for any specific comment. Martine Vassal, president (DVD) of the Metropolis and the Department, who had refused to choose between RN and NFP on the evening of the first round, focused her analysis on the national situation. Just like Renaud Muselier, president (Renaissance) of the Paca Region.
The elimination of all the candidates from the presidential party or LR in the first round in Marseille had already made an observation on the weakness of the traditional right and the center in this type of national election.
The procrastination of its executives regarding the republican front will not fail to raise questions as a new restructuring begins.
For these legislative elections, Franck Allisio had poached Olivier Rioult, one of Martine Vassal’s close collaborators at the Métropole and the Department. He could be tempted to go further in the union of the right that he has been promoting for several years.

The RN’s general director resigns
The RN’s general director, who resigned from his post the day after the legislative elections, Gilles Pennelle, elected a month ago as a Member of the European Parliament, was the main architect of the far-right party’s “Matignon Plan”, which was supposed to provide for all the logistics in the event of early legislative elections and only required “pressing a button” to be activated. The RN and its allies obtained 143 seats at the end of the vote, more than the 89 in 2022, but less than hoped for at the end of the first round on June 30. Elected as a Member of the European Parliament in June, he had been tasked with the task of finding reliable candidates in the event of early legislative elections.
But many of them proved problematic, with racist, homophobic, anti-Semitic or xenophobic remarks widely relayed on social networks, while the race between the two rounds of the legislative elections was actively being played out. A few “black sheep” and “black sheep”, but a majority of “good people”, affirmed Jordan Bardella and Marine Le Pen, forced to react after the racist slip-ups of some of their candidates which plunged the RN into turmoil, in the final stretch of the legislative elections.
On Monday, July 8, Jordan Bardella also assumed “his share of responsibility” and acknowledged “errors” after the defeat in the July 7 election.
From our special correspondent
in Marseille Samir Sabek