The Guardian view on France’s snap election: the unthinkable becomes plausible

Sunday’s first round vote puts Marine Le Pen’s radical right within touching distance of power. The priority must now be damage limitationf Emmanuel Macron still harboured hopes that his decision to gift Marine Le Pen a snap parliamentary election would pay off, they are surely dispelled now.

More broadly, an RN-led government would seek to undermine the values of the European Union from within, in the name of nativist nationalism. Little wonder then that Alice Weidel, the co-chair of the far-right Alternative for Germany,Sunday’s result “with admiration and respect”, noting that Ms Le Pen’s party was “of course … a role model”.

France’s two-round electoral system means that the worst may yet be avoided, as candidates can drop out to allow voters to form a single bloc of opposition to the radical right. This tradition of a robust “republican front” has faded in recent legislative elections. It must urgently be revived to ensure that RN does not achieve an absolute majority in the second round, even if this means further misery for the president’s centrist alliance.

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