Over 200 French election candidates quit in effort to block Marine Le Pen’s hard-Right party forming government – after Macron’s disastrous snap poll

Opponents of France’s anti-immigration Rassemblement National party made a last-ditch effort last night to keep the party from power.

The far-right party known as RN, led by Marine Le Pen, was the clear winner of the first round of parliamentary elections on Sunday, taking a third of the vote in all 577 constituencies.

But there is a second round of voting for candidates who received more than 12.5 percent and less than 50 percent of the vote in the first round.

And opponents of the RN – including President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist coalition Together (Ensemble) and the left-wing alliance New Popular Front – faced a deadline yesterday to withdraw tactical candidates from constituencies where uniting anti-right voters could deny the RN victory.

In 218 constituencies, the third-place candidate withdrew last night, creating multiple local coalitions of anti-far-right voters.

Candidates are now dropping out in a bid to drive out the far right after Macron’s slow start

The future Prime Minister of the Royal Navy, Jordan Bardella, last night called the agreements a “dishonourable alliance” that brings shame on the French Republic.

In the first round, the New Popular Front came in second with 28.5 percent, embarrassing Macron’s party in third place with 22 percent.

Together, their support is clearly greater than that for the Royal Navy. Those fearing extremism may be heartened by yesterday’s news that a Royal Navy candidate was decommissioned after being photographed wearing a Nazi cap.

The party has long tried to distance itself from suggestions that its members are Nazi sympathizers.

Casting a long shadow is former leader Jean-Marie Le Pen, the father of current leader Marine, who infamously called Hitler’s Jewish holocaust a “detail” of history.

But that didn’t stop RN candidate Ludivine Daoudi (47) from winning 20 percent of the vote in the first round in her Normandy constituency. She wore a World War II Luftwaffe officer’s cap, complete with swastika, and she smiled.

RN spokesman Philippe Chapron admitted that the image was in “bad taste”. As he said, Ms Daoudi had “withdrawn her candidacy today”.

Mr Chapron continued: ‘She doesn’t deny it – this photo was taken of her at an arms sale a few years ago.’

Mrs Daoudi was standing in Caen in northern France, which the Nazi occupiers fiercely defended after the D-Day landings in 1944. Marine Le Pen, a repeat French presidential candidate, was keen to “detox” her party to make her more eligible.

And if the party does indeed win 289 seats after Sunday’s second round, perhaps with the help of a handful of independents, Macron will have no choice but to appoint Le Pen’s young parliamentary protégé, Mr Bardella, as prime minister.

According to forecasts, the RN could win between 260 and 310 seats, the NPF between 115 and 145 seats and Together between 90 and 120.

An RN government would have to share power with President Macron, who is head of state until 2027.

Mr Bardella has already promised to pursue an anti-immigration agenda, by abolishing the automatic right to French nationality for anyone born in France to foreign parents.

He has also said he will take tougher action against dual nationals who hold high-security jobs in France, such as managing nuclear power plants.

Protesters take part in a demonstration against the RN after the announcement of the results of the first round of the parliamentary elections at the Place de la Republique in Paris on June 30

Tension rises as protesters gather at Place de la Republique to protest the rising right-wing movement in Paris, France on June 30, 2024

Ms Le Pen yesterday accused President Macron of planning an “administrative coup” by preparing a number of key appointments to the police and army just days before Sunday’s crucial vote.

She said: ‘If you want to thwart the election results by nominating your own people for certain positions, and if that prevents the government from carrying out the policies that the French have asked for, then I call that an administrative coup d’état.’

Macron dissolved the National Assembly and called early elections for June 9 after suffering a defeat in the French European Parliament against Rassemblement National.

He is now accused, even by members of his own camp, of rolling out the red carpet for the National Congress while voters were unhappy about inflation, immigration and Macron himself.

The possible arrival of a far-right parliament has overshadowed the run-up to the Olympic Games in Paris.