Paris –
The champagne was chilling at the headquarters of the far-right Rassemblement National (RN), but the celebratory mood quickly turned to disbelief as the first expected results of Sunday’s parliamentary elections appeared on TV.
For days, Marine Le Pen had confidently predicted that her party would win with an absolute majority and that her protégé Jordan Bardella would become prime minister. Instead, the Rassemblement National was on course to finish third, behind a left-wing alliance and the centrist bloc of President Emmanuel Macron.
It was largely undone by tactical negotiations between centrist and left-wing opponents, who withdrew more than 200 candidates from three races to avoid splitting the vote against the RN.
