PARIS: Opponents of France's National Rally (RN) stepped up their bid to block the far-right party from power on Tuesday as more candidates agreed to pull out of this weekend's run-off election to avoid splitting the anti-RN vote.
More than 200 candidates have confirmed they will not stand in Sunday's second-round for France's 577-seat national parliament, according to local media estimates.
Marine Le Pen's RN came out well ahead in Sunday's first-round vote after President Emmanuel Macron's challenge on a snap election backfired, leaving his centrist camp in a lowly third place behind the RN and a hastily formed left-wing alliance.
But even before the manoeuvring of the last 24 hours to create a "republican front" to block the anti-immigrant, eurosceptic party, it was far from clear the RN could win the 289 seats needed for a majority.
Pollsters calculated the first round put the RN on track for anything between 250-300 seats. But that was before the tactical withdrawals and cross-party calls for voters to back whichever candidate was best placed to defeat the local RN rival.
"The match is not over. We must mobilise all our forces," the Socialist mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, told France 2, insisting the rise of the far right should not spoil the festive mood in the French capital as it hosts the summer Olympics.
The RN is hostile to further European Union integration and would cut funding to the EU. Human rights groups have raised concerns about how its "national preference" and anti-migrant policies would apply to ethnic minorities, while economists question whether its hefty spending plans are fully funded.
There was initial confusion over whether Macron's allies would stand down in local contests in favour of better-placed rival candidates if they came from the radical left-wing France Unbowed (LFI) party of Jean-Luc Melenchon.
However Macron on Monday told a closed-door meeting of ministers at the Elysee Palace that the top priority was blocking the RN from power and that LFI candidates could be endorsed if necessary. Reuters
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