An overview of the French elections | Explained

Explaining how the French electoral system works and what is at stake for the 2024 France elections

The story so far:

The first phase of the French elections conducted on June 30, after President Emmanuel Macron’s sudden decision to dissolve parliament, has placed the far-right National Rally (RN) and its allies in the lead with a 33% vote share. The New Popular Front, a left-wing coalition, came second with 28%, while Mr. Macron’s centrist bloc got only 20.7% of the vote share. The second phase will be held on July 7.

On June 9, Mr. Macron stated that he was dissolving parliament, three years too soon, observing that “France needs a clear majority if it is to act in serenity and harmony”. This announcement came after his bloc’s devastating defeat at the hands of the RN in the European Parliament elections. While the decision came as a shock to most of his party members and allies, Marine Le Pen, the RN leader, welcomed the decision, claiming, “we’re ready for it”.

Experts say Mr. Macron’s decision was an attempt to stop the rise of the RN. His gamble was that the French public, faced with the choice of having a far-right party in power, would consolidate against the right-wing wave. However, if that was indeed the reasoning, it seems as if Mr. Macron placed the wrong bet. Almost all opinion polls by major outlets were predicting a lead for the RN (but short of an absolute majority), while Mr. Macron’s approval ratings hit rock-bottom to 36%, according to a Toluna-Harris Interactive poll.

The sudden call for elections and the high stakes involved in the race has energised the electorate, with the Interior Ministry stating that 59.4% of registered voters had cast a ballot as of 5 p.m. on June 30, as compared to the 39.4% at the same time two years ago.

There are 577 seats in the French parliament, which include 13 overseas districts and 11 constituencies that represent French citizens abroad. So to hold an absolute majority in parliament, a party needs 289 seats.

The first phase of the elections is equivalent to a qualifying round wherein candidates must at least get 12.5% of locally registered votes in order to stay in the race and not get eliminated. If a candidate gets more than half of the total votes cast in the first round itself, they will automatically win. If not, candidates who have met the qualifying criteria will move on to the second phase. At this stage of the elections, ‘horse-trading’ is a common practice wherein parties form blocs among themselves and drop candidates in constituencies which may split the vote and favour a rival party/alliance.