MONTREAL — Large numbers of French nationals in Montreal are expected to turn out on Saturday for the first round of France's parliamentary elections, spurred to the ballot box by the threat of a surging far-right party and its allies that are leading in the polls back home.
Marie Lapierre, France’s Consul general in Montreal, says she thinks the participation rate in the city this election will be double what it was in 2022. Yan Niesing, president of the Union Française de Montréal, an organization that helps French nationals settle in the city, called the election"historic."Frédéric Mérand, a political science professor at the Montreal Centre for International Studies at Université de Montréal, says the level of engagement in the city is unusual for a French election.
The outcome of the vote, following the second round on July 7 and an exceptionally brief campaign, remains highly uncertain as three major political blocs are competing: the far-right National Rally, Macron’s centrist alliance and the New Popular Front coalition that includes centre-left, greens and hard-left forces.“All the other candidates are expected to be way, way, way behind,” he said.
“This election will show maybe a side of France that has not been seen for many, many years, which is the rise of the far-right,” he said, adding that parties that used to be on the political fringe have become more normalized and mainstream in recent years.
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