French president, centrist bloc rule out coalition with left-wing LFI

ANKARA

The French president and his centrist bloc have reportedly ruled out the possibility of a coalition with the left-wing party France Unbowed (LFI) after the snap parliamentary elections.

President Emmanuel Macron said he would not form a coalition with the LFI in a hypothetical coalition against the far-right party National Rally (RN), sources in his entourage told the daily Le Figaro on Wednesday after the Council of Ministers meeting.

“There would be no coalition with the LFI," the sources said. "As we say not a single vote must go to the RN, there is no way that the LFI takes part in a government.”

The LFI is one of the components of the left-wing alliance New Popular Front.

Parties continue working on political calculations as the country is gearing up for the second round of the elections on July 7.

More than 210 candidates have withdrawn in favor of a stronger peer who might have a better chance of countering the far right.

The total includes 131 candidates from the left-wing alliance New Popular Front and 82 from the centrist alliance Together for the Republic who stepped down, Le Monde reported Tuesday.

The strategy is simple: The candidate who withdraws from the race is working to avoid dividing ballots opposing the right wing and so makes room for another candidate who might have a better chance beating a far-right National Rally (RN) candidate.

On June 9, Macron dissolved parliament and called early elections after the National Rally won more than 31% of the vote in European Parliament elections, roundly defeating his centrist bloc.

The RN got 29.5% of the vote by itself in the first round on June 30 – a rate that rises to over 33% when combined with its allies – according to official election results.

The party alone got more than 9.37 million votes, giving it 37 seats in parliament.

The left-wing alliance New Popular Front got 27.99% (over 8.9 million votes), putting it second with 32 seats.

The centrist Together for the Republic alliance backed by Macron finished third with slightly over 20.04% (more than 6.4 million votes), securing only two seats.

The second round of the elections will take place on Sunday to elect 577 members of the National Assembly for a five-year term.