Second round of French legislative elections: Key takeaways

The “republican front” (or le barrage républicain, an anti-far-right informal electoral understanding from the right to the center and far-left to block the advance (faire barrage) of the RN) may have struggled, but they managed to hold their ground. While it looked as though the RN might win an absolute majority in the first round of early parliamentary elections on June 30, the far-right party came third in the second round on Sunday, July 7. The left-wing alliance came out on top, followed by the presidential camp.The RN continues to alarm peopleIn the previous parliament, the RN had 89 MPs. It has now an additional 37 seats, bringing its total to 126, excluding its allies — putting it in the lead in partisan estimates and representatives.This is an improved result, but still far from the projections at the end of the legislative...