Far‑right gains momentum as Macron’s party loses ground in polls

The far-right National Rally, led by Marine Le Pen, is leading in the pre-election polls in France. According to a survey by the Ifop Center, it can count on over 30 percent of the votes.

34 percent of respondents declared that they would vote in the parliamentary elections on June 30th for National Rally, which has recently received support from Eric Ciotti, head of the right-wing Republican party.

29 percent of respondents intend to vote for the New Popular Front—a broad alliance of socialists, communists, followers of Jean-Luc Melenchon, and Greens.

22 percent of the survey participants chose the political camp of French President Emmanuel Macron (his party Renaissance, along with allies).

The Ifop Center conducted the survey for the newspaper Le Figaro, LCI television, and Sud Radio. Le Figaro assesses the results as a significant shift towards nationalism. The 34 percent support for RN represents a 15 percentage point increase compared to the parliamentary elections in 2022.

In the previous elections, left-wing parties, then forming a coalition called NUPES, received 25.6 percent of the votes. The presidential camp received 25.7 percent of the votes at that time and is currently the only political force losing support.

Nevertheless, this result is better than in the European Parliament elections, when about 15 percent of voters voted for President Macron’s party list.

The first round of early parliamentary elections will be held in France on June 30th, and the second round on July 7th.