The far-right National Rally (RN) has strengthened in final polls, including one suggesting it could be on course for a historic parliamentary majority, as candidates fought for votes on the last day of campaigning before the first-round ballot in France’s most momentous election for decades, reports The Guardian.
Two days before Sunday’s ballot, two polls on Friday showed Marine Le Pen’s anti-immigration, France-first party pulling steadily further ahead in a race it has led since President Emmanuel Macron called the shock ballot almost three weeks ago after the defeat of his centrists in the European parliamentary election.
Official campaigning for the first round vote ends at midnight on Friday, with no political activity allowed on Saturday. Campaigning resumes on Monday for a final five days before a decisive second round ballot on 7 July in which the party could take control of France’s government for the first time.
One poll, for Les Echos newspaper, showed RN could win 37% of the national vote, two points more than a week ago, while another, for BFM TV, estimated the far-right party was on course for 260-295 seats – potentially giving it an outright majority.
RN, which has pledged to boost spending power, slash immigration and restore law and order, “cannot only envisage a relative majority, but we cannot exclude – far from it – an absolute majority” of 289 deputies, Brice Teinturier, the deputy director of a third polling agency, Ipsos, told Agence France-Presse.