Strategies Against Far-Right Parties Dominate French Elections

French political parties on Monday presented their final candidacies for regional elections, seeking to prevent the far-right from coming to power.

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The elections will be held in two rounds on June 20 and 27. They are seen as a prelude to the 2022 presidential election, which is marked by the rise of the far-right National Rally (RN) in the polls.

In the Hauts-de-France and Ile-de-France regions, President Emmanuel Macron's administration nominated over 15 senior officials as candidates to contest the supremacy of “The Republicans” (LR) party.

According to the current electoral system, candidates who have won more than 10 percent of the vote in the first round can run in a second round. The winners will then be those politicians who obtain the most votes even if they do not reach 50 percent of the ballots. These rules favor political tactics such as the creation of candidacies with members of several parties.

Although the French ultra-right has never governed in any subnational territory, polls show that former LR member Thierry Mariani could win in the Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur region.

In this important territory, the leftist party France Insoumise (LFI) has refused to present a candidacy, after environmentalists blocked it from participating in a joint candidacy.

"We are not going to join the chaos that is being prepared," said LFI, a party which is currently led by Jean-Luc Melenchon.