/wion/media/agency_attachments/2024/12/26/2024-12-26t112006978z-wion-white-logo-for-website-2-1.png){kind=logo}
/wion/media/agency_attachments/2024/12/13/2024-12-13t071548098z-wionlogo.webp)
/wion/media/member_avatars/sites/default/files/styles/medium/public/2024/09/26/456938-author-profilr.png)
/wion/media/post_attachments/files/2024/04/28/427884-succession-2024-04-28t002940572.jpg)
Paris, France
As President Emmanuel Macron and a left-wing alliance attempt to thwart the far-right, at least 200 candidates have withdrawn before France's runoff election.
The opponents are expecting that by strategically withdrawing candidacy to consolidate vote before the runoff, Marine Le Pen's far-right National Rally party won't receive the majority of 289 seats in the 577-seat National Assembly.
At least 200 candidates have already withdrawn before Tuesday's 6:00 pm (1600 GMT) deadline for second-round registration, almost all of them were left-wing or affiliated with Macron's centrist party, according to AFP.
More than 70 of the candidates who have chosen to withdraw from the campaign are from Macron's camp, while more than 110 are from the left-wing New Popular Front.
Also read: Reform UK candidate resigns, joins Tories, condemns party's 'racist, misogynistic,' culture
A party official informed local media that a far-right candidate also resigned over an old social media image in which she was seen wearing a Nazi cap.
After President Emmanuel Macron's bet on a snap election backfired, putting his centrist camp in a meagre third place behind a hurriedly created left-wing coalition, while Marine Le Pen's RN emerged victorious in Sunday's (June 30) first-round vote.
Watch | France Snap Polls: Voters cast their ballots in New Caledonia
In the first round, just 76 lawmakers were elected outright, nearly all of them from the extremes of the right and left.
Runoff elections between two or three candidates will decide the future of the remaining 501 seats in the second round.
It was initially unclear if Macron's allies would withdraw in favour of better-placed rival candidates from Jean-Luc Melenchon's radical left-wing France Unbowed (LFI) party.
Macron did, however, state that the primary goal was keeping the RN out of power and that LFI candidates could be backed if needed at a closed-door ministerial meeting at the Elysee Palace on Monday.
(With inputs from agencies)