France’s far-right National Rally will defeat President Emmanuel Macron’s Renaissance by a wide margin in the European Parliament elections, according to broadcasters’ projections on Sunday evening.
The Eurosceptic National Rally received 31.5 to 32.4% of the vote, while Macron’s pro-European camp received only about 15.2%, broadcasters France 2 and TF1 reported on Sunday after the polls closed.
Projections put the Socialists in third place with 14 to 14.3%, just behind Macron’s centrist bloc.
The result is a bitter defeat for Macron. Right-wing nationalists were already ahead of his camp in the last European elections in 2019. Although the right only had a small lead at the time, they have now widened it significantly and probably won about twice as many votes as Macron’s centrist forces. .
The National Rally’s landslide victory is likely to put further pressure on the government, which no longer has an absolute majority in the lower house of parliament, the National Assembly.
France is also looking ahead to the 2027 presidential elections: Macron, who twice won the second election against right-wing figurehead Marine Le Pen, will no longer be able to run for office after two terms in office.
It is still unclear who the center-right forces will send into the race and who will have a chance against Le Pen.
The daughter of the far-right founder of the party then known as the National Front, Jean-Marie Le Penhas successfully created a much more moderate image in recent years and made her party electable, making major gains among center-right voters.
