October 10, 2025
After falling short of a majority in last year's snap legislative vote, French far-right leader Marine Le Pen said her party's victory had merely been delayed.
Fifteen months later, with the fallout of that vote having plunged France into a chronic crisis, Le Pen and her National Rally (RN) sense their moment is nearing as Macron tests the limits of his power to avoid further elections.
The RN's continued ostracisation from mainstream politics has positioned it as a leading beneficiary of the rumbling malaise. By watching the crisis unfold from the sidelines, it has been able to pick up disgruntled voters.
FAR RIGHT AHEAD IN THE POLLS
A Wednesday poll by OpinionWay for the right-wing CNEWS channel found that around 35% of French people planned to vote for the RN in the first round of a possible legislative vote, 10 points ahead of a broad leftist alliance if it were to regroup.
While that is hardly an electoral tsunami - the RN was polling just slightly lower before the 2024 vote - the party believes it can win, or come close to, a majority in a legislative vote should Macron call one.
It believes the electoral pacts between rival parties that stopped it from winning a majority in 2024 will no longer hold after months of partisan squabbling. A leftist alliance between the Socialists and hard-left "France Unbowed" has collapsed since the 2024 vote, while the "common platform" alliance between centrists and conservatives is on life support.
Although Macron will name a new prime minister this week, his next government's survival is far from guaranteed. Experts say a dissolution of parliament in the coming weeks - something Le Pen has repeatedly called for - cannot be discounted.
.....................................................................
https://www.reuters.com/world/europ...ting-wings-frances-crisis-unfolds-2025-10-09/
After falling short of a majority in last year's snap legislative vote, French far-right leader Marine Le Pen said her party's victory had merely been delayed.
Fifteen months later, with the fallout of that vote having plunged France into a chronic crisis, Le Pen and her National Rally (RN) sense their moment is nearing as Macron tests the limits of his power to avoid further elections.
The RN's continued ostracisation from mainstream politics has positioned it as a leading beneficiary of the rumbling malaise. By watching the crisis unfold from the sidelines, it has been able to pick up disgruntled voters.
FAR RIGHT AHEAD IN THE POLLS
A Wednesday poll by OpinionWay for the right-wing CNEWS channel found that around 35% of French people planned to vote for the RN in the first round of a possible legislative vote, 10 points ahead of a broad leftist alliance if it were to regroup.
While that is hardly an electoral tsunami - the RN was polling just slightly lower before the 2024 vote - the party believes it can win, or come close to, a majority in a legislative vote should Macron call one.
It believes the electoral pacts between rival parties that stopped it from winning a majority in 2024 will no longer hold after months of partisan squabbling. A leftist alliance between the Socialists and hard-left "France Unbowed" has collapsed since the 2024 vote, while the "common platform" alliance between centrists and conservatives is on life support.
Although Macron will name a new prime minister this week, his next government's survival is far from guaranteed. Experts say a dissolution of parliament in the coming weeks - something Le Pen has repeatedly called for - cannot be discounted.
.....................................................................
https://www.reuters.com/world/europ...ting-wings-frances-crisis-unfolds-2025-10-09/
