Paris, France - June 30, 2024

More than 200 deputy candidates who qualified for the second round of France's legislative elections scheduled for Sunday withdrew their candidacy, mostly to try to prevent an outright majority for the far-right, according to a count by the AFP news agency and French daily Le Monde.

Marine Le Pen's far-right National Rally (RN) and its allies won the first round on 30 June with a third of the vote and could even achieve an absolute majority of 289 MPs, according to projections.

The French electoral system for these elections, in which 577 deputies are elected in constituencies with a two-round majority system, the high turnout and the dispersion of the vote opened the way for more than 300 run-offs with three or more candidates.

Faced with this scenario, the left-wing New Popular Front (NFP) coalition and President Emmanuel Macron's centre-right alliance reactivated the so-called "republican front", which aims to isolate the far right and prevent its victory in each constituency in which it finished first.
The RN's candidate for prime minister, Jordan Bardella, denounced "alliances of dishonour" and called on voters for an absolute majority "in the face of the existential threat to the French nation" that the left-wing coalition represents in his view.

SHOTLIST:
1. people voting in Paris on June 30, 2024.