French voters head to polls for 1st round of parliamentary elections

(Image credit: Photo by SAMEER AL-DOUMY/AFP via Getty Images)

published 12 June 2022

French voters headed to the polls Sunday to elect a new National Assembly. President Emmanuel Macron, who defeated right-winger Marine Le Pen to win a second five-year term in April, hopes to gain a strong mandate, while leftist Jean-Luc Mélenchon aims to become prime minister.

Macron's centrist coalition, Ensemble (ENS), is running neck-and-neck with Mélenchon's left-wing New Ecologic and Social People's Union (NUPES), according to a survey conducted Friday. The survey showed NUPES and ENS polling at 27 and 28 percent respectively, well within the margin of error. Le Pen's National Rally came in a distant third with 19 percent.

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Grayson Quay was the weekend editor at TheWeek.com. His writing has also been published in National Review, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Modern Age, The American Conservative, The Spectator World, and other outlets. Grayson earned his M.A. from Georgetown University in 2019.

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