Candidates exit French runoff to stop far right

PARIS — More than 200 centrist and left-wing candidates pulled out of France's legislative election runoff by a Tuesday deadline, in a move President Emmanuel Macron hopes will block the far right from winning power.

France votes on Sunday in the final round of snap legislative polls Macron called to seek a "clarification" in politics after his camp was trounced in European elections last month.

His gamble backfired, with the far-right National Rally, or RN, of Marine Le Pen winning the June 30 first round. But the key suspense now is whether the RN can get enough seats to form government.

Faced with the prospect of the far right taking power for the first time since World War II, Macron's camp and the left have urged a broad "Republican Front" to stop Le Pen's anti-immigration and euroskeptic party.

By Tuesday evening's deadline to register, more than 210 pro-Macron or left-wing candidates had pulled out of contests in an attempt to prevent the RN winning seats, in what appeared a welcome development for the presidential camp.

But Le Pen appeared to row back on previous comments that the RN would only form a government with an absolute majority of 289 of the 577 seats in the National Assembly, saying it would still try if slightly below this figure.

She said her party would seek to form a government and make her 28-year-old protege Jordan Bardella prime minister even with as little as "for example, 270 deputies", requiring them to find support from another 19 members of parliament to govern.

If Bardella becomes prime minister, this would create a tense period of "cohabitation" with Macron, who has vowed to serve out his term until 2027.

Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, 35, said late on Monday it "would be catastrophic for the French" to give the far right an absolute majority.

On Tuesday, Attal came under pressure from a 22-year-old voter during a campaign stop in Paris who accused the centrist camp of not doing enough to prevent the ascent of Le Pen's party.

"You don't have the right to leave the world to the far right," the man told Attal in a tense exchange, adding that people of his generation "are just starting out in life".

Second round

Just 76 lawmakers, almost all from the far right and left, were elected outright in Sunday's first round of voting. The fate of the remaining 501 seats will be determined in the second round in runoffs between two, three, or in some rare cases, four remaining candidates.

The RN is hostile to further European Union integration and would cut funding to the EU.Human rights groups have raised concerns about how its "national preference" and anti-immigrant policies would apply to ethnic minorities, while economists question whether its hefty spending plans are fully funded.

In Warsaw, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has called for pro-EU parties to do more to address the concerns of ordinary voters and counter rising nationalism after talks with his German counterpart Olaf Scholz.

On Tuesday, Scholz also expressed concern over the political situation in France.

"In any case, I am keeping my fingers crossed that the French, whom I love and appreciate so much, the country that means so much to me, will succeed in preventing a government led by a right-wing populist party from being formed," he said.

The comments mark the first time the Social Democrat has expressed a clear political preference with regard to France.

Agencies via Xinhua