Why is France holding a second round of parliamentary elections on Sunday? | World

The second round of the French parliamentary elections will be held on Sunday (7). 577 deputies will be elected to the National Assembly, which is the equivalent of the Chamber of Deputies in Brazil. Understand how it works below.

In France, parliamentary elections follow a complex system, dividing the territory into regions and applying a 50% plus one vote rule (similar to that used to select executive heads in Brazil) to determine who will fill each seat across the legislature.

• Legislators are elected by region.A parliamentary candidate needs more than 50% of the votes to be directly elected in the first round.
• Otherwise, the candidates who receive the most votes in the first round, Along with anyone else who received the support of more than 12.5% ​​of registered voters.advances to the second round.
• This Sunday, there are more than 300 second shifts in the regions.
• In some cases, three or four candidates make it to the second round, Although they may withdraw to increase the competitor’s chances and avoid electing a bigger opponent. – a tactic that has often been used in the past to block far-right candidates.
• The challenge is to get the dropout voters to turn out. Potential absence weakens alliances.
• The leaders of the main parties are expected to determine their strategy (to form alliances or to cede to a rival) in the one-week period between the two rounds. This makes the outcome of the second round on Sunday highly uncertain.It depends on political maneuvering and how voters react.

Very right opportunity

The far-right Reunion Nacional party has a chance of winning an absolute majority in the National Assembly on Sunday — at least 289 of the 577 seats.

The election, called just three weeks ago, saw a record turnout in nearly 40 years — voting is not compulsory in France — and confirmed the favoritism of Marine Le Pen’s political group. The result came in more than what exit polls had predicted.

President Macron has proposed a broad coalition of “republican and democratic candidates” for the second round of the elections on July 7. Marine Le Pen has asked the French to give her party an absolute majority in parliament in the second round.

This scenario could make Macron’s government unable to continue in practice.

If the president and prime minister are from different political parties, France will enter into a so-called “cohabitation” government, something that has happened only three times in the history of the European country and which could paralyze Macron’s government.

This is because the Prime Minister, in this case, assumes the tasks of leading the government internally, suggesting, for example, who the ministers will be.

Current Prime Minister Gabriel Attal is an ally of Macron, but if the polls bear out, the person who should take over is Jordan Bardella, just 28 years old, the main name of Le Pen’s National Front party.

The National Assembly – the Brazilian equivalent of the Chamber of Deputies – is the more powerful of the two chambers of the French parliament. It has the final say in the legislative process in the conservative-dominated Senate.