The National Front garnered more votes but the New Popular Front gained more seats

The second round of the parliamentary elections in France ended with first place being occupied by the “New Popular Front”, a very diverse coalition composed of left-wing parties and politicians. It garnered 25.81% of the vote for 148 seats (a total of 180 together with the results of the first round). In the second round it garnered fewer votes than the Rassemblement National (7,040,207 compared to 8,745,076, or 10,110,023 if we take into account their allies) but won in several constituencies more.

The “Ensemble pour la République”, the political movement sponsored by Macron, managed to amaze by winning 159 seats after winning only two constituencies in the first round.

The far-right party “Rassemblement National” (National Front) garnered 32.05% of the number of votes, but in terms of the number of seats in the National Assembly (the lower house of the French Parliament), round 1 plus round 2, it managed to acquire only 125 seats, 142 if we take into account the allies.

The situation is very interesting because the Rassemblement National clearly has a greater popularity if we take into account the popular vote. However, it managed only 3rd place, below the Ensemble pour la République which garnered just over half the number of votes recorded in support of Le Pen’s political movement.

The big winner, in terms of seats in the National Assembly, is the New Popular Front, which has also announced that it is ready to govern. The New Popular Front and Ensemble pour la République formed an alliance in the second round through which they chose to support the candidates who had a chance of defeating the Rassemblement National, withdrawing those in 3rd place. This strategy has borne fruit and it is expected that in parliament the two political forces will continue cooperation in certain areas.

We can therefore consider that the Rassemblement National was defeated by an electoral artifice in which voters were urged to vote against someone, instead of voting according to their own political preferences, a kind of “the lesser evil”.