Marine Le Pen declares far-right party 'almost wiped out' Emmanuel Macron after leading first set of French elections

30 June 2024, 23:17 | Updated: 1 July 2024, 05:19

Marine Le Pen said her far right National Rally has "almost wiped out" President Emmanuel Macron as the exit polls show the party leads the first round of snap legislative elections to take place in France.

President Macron called a surprise vote when his centrist alliance was beaten in the European elections by France’s National Rally party at the beginning of this month.

Ms Le Pen’s party is leading the first round of elections with around 33% of votes while the left wing New Popular Front coalition has been seen to be coming in second with around 28.5%, according to exit polls.

The figure is nearly double the 18% the party managed in the 2022 elections and puts them in a good position to become the largest party of France's lower house.

Meanwhile, Pollsters IFOP, Ipsos, OpinionWay and Elabe found President Macron's centrist bloc to be in the third spot with between 20.5-23%.

Addressing supporters in Henin-Beaumont, northern France, Ms Le Pen said “Democracy has spoken” after exit polls suggested her party took the biggest share in Sunday’s first-round vote.

She added: “Nothing is won and the second round will be decisive, to avoid the country falling into the hands of the Nupes coalition, a far-Left with violent tendencies.”

Ms Le Pen said the second round of voting would be “decisive in giving Jordan [Bardella] an absolute majority in the National Assembly, to launch next week the recovery of France and the restoration of unity and national harmony”.

She added: "The French have almost wiped out the Macronist bloc."

Ms Le Pen's protege and party leaderMr Bardella has enjoyed a spike in popularity, particularly among young voters.

He told supporters in Paris on Sunday evening: "Three weeks after the European elections the French people have given a verdict and they have confirmed their clear hopes for change.

"This is giving us hope throughout the country."

He warned of the "dangers" of the left-wing coalition its leader Jean-Luc Melenchon, saying it could put France in "existential peril".

The first round of elections attracted a significant number of French voters with an unusually high turnout of 59% reported earlier with three hours left to go.

"This is the highest level since the 1986 legislative elections," Mathieu Gallard, research director at the Ipsos polling institute, said.

At the same stage in the first round of the 2022 legislative elections, turnout was recorded as 39.42%.

Read more: France heading to the polls in high-stakes snap parliamentary election

Read more: Emmanuel Macron calls shock French snap election after far-right surge in EU poll

This first round of voting started at 8am - or 7am UK time - and ended at 4pm in smaller towns, and 6pm in bigger cities.

France's semi-presidential system means that it has both a president and a prime minister.

The voting happening today will reveal who is prime minister, but not president, with Mr Macron already having decided to stay in his role until the end of 2027.

If Ms Le Pen's party win an absolute majority, France would end up with a government and president from different political camps the fourth time in post-war history.

Polls showed that support for Le Pen's far-right, anti-immigrant National Rally (RN) had increased in recent days.

A poll undertaken for Les Echoes newspaper indicated that the RN was due to win 37 per cent of the national vote, which is an increase of two points from more than a week ago.

Another poll from BFM TV estimated that the far-right party might win between 260 and 295 seats, which could give it an outright majority within France's 577 constituencies.

Polls indicated that the New Popular Front (NFP), a leftwing alliance, might receive 28 per cent of the vote, whereas Macron's centrist bloc falls behind at 20 per cent.

After today's vote, campaigning will begin on Monday for an additional five days before voters are called back to the polls for a final, decisive second-round ballot on 7 July.

Following the first-round vote, Macron is planning to convene a government meeting to decide the further course of action, government sources told AFP.