At the gates of power: Can French left, centrists stop far right in second round?

The Debate

It turns out the polls did get it right. One in three French voters chose the far right in Sunday’s first round of snap legislative elections, putting Marine Le Pen's party on the brink of power with an unprecedented score for an extreme party that's never before won in France through the ballot box. With one short week before the run-off, we ask why and what it will take for rivals to coalesce.

Politics indeed makes for strange bedfellows. With a 577-seat National Assembly, we ask just how hard it will be for old rivals to hold their noses and vote for each other in the more than 400 run-offs where the far right has a chance.

More broadly, what has changed in the two short years since the last parliament got voted in in the wake of President Emmanuel Macron's re-election? What consequences will his decision to dissolve said parliament have on France, Europe and beyond?

Produced by Alessandro Xenos, Rebecca Gnignati and Juliette Brown.