French President Emmanuel Macron's centrist Ensemble alliance heads into the week ahead of a crucial second round of runoff voting in lower house elections with a razor-thin edge over the left-wing NUPES bloc, amid accusations of voter irregularities.
UPDATE: 11h10UT
Macron's Ensemble alliance of centrist parties has won 25.75% of the popular vote on Sunday, according to the interior ministry's final tally, while Jean-Luc Mélenchon's NUPES bloc came in second with 25.66%.
Manuel Bompard, one of Mélenchon's most senior allies, himself running for a seat in Marseille, called into question the credibility of the result.
"Alert to new manipulation by Darmanin", Bompard said in a Twitter post early on Monday, referring to Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin.
Bompard said the NUPES won some 200,000 more votes that were not accounted for in the final results, without presenting any evidence for his assertion.
ALERTE À LA NOUVELLE MANIPULATION DE #DARMANIN
— Manuel Bompard (@mbompard) June 13, 2022
Alors que la #NUPES réalise 6 101 968 voix (soit 26,8%), le ministère de l’intérieur ne lui attribue que 5 836 202 voix (soit 25,7%) pour faire apparaître artificiellement le parti de #Macron en tête.
Allo le Conseil d’Etat ?
Irregularities dismissed by Macron's Renaissance party
The Interior Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment, however Budget Minister Gabriel Attal said: "[The left] always call into question the figures ... it's their speciality."
Speaking on France Info this Monday morning, former interior minister Christophe Castaner lent his voice to the polemic.
"Let's not try to add conspiracy to the conspiratorial culture that we know exists within France Unbowed," he said, adding the claims "were not very serious."
Castaner, who is also president of the Renaissance group in the National Assembly, defended France's interior minister "who works with the prefects, as close as possible to the field, according to the feedback of the candidates' declarations".
For his part, Bompard described Castaner's response as "incredible, adding "He [Castaner] qualifies as conspiracy theorists those who just ask for an accurate presentation of the results."
La #NUPES c'est le programme économique de @JLMelenchon : ni chiffré ni réaliste mais dont la facture sera payée par tous. Nous défendons le travail et le plein emploi, nous défendons l'attractivité de la France. Pour distribuer de la richesse il faut la produire, pas l'inventer! pic.twitter.com/xk6IfVdKUP
— Christophe Castaner (@CCastaner) June 13, 2022
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Macron's alliance struggles for parliamentary majority
Even though Marcon's alliance is well-positioned to secure the largest number of seats by a wide margin, main polling institutes said the president could still lose his grip on parliament in the final round of voting.
According to a forecast by the pollster Elabe, Ensemble is set to win between 260 and 300 parliament seats - with an outright majority secured at 289 - while the left would secure 170-220 seats, a big increase from 2017.
Rival pollster Ipsos expected Ensemble to win 255 to 295 seats.
With rampant inflation driving up the cost of living and eroding wages, Macron has struggled to build on his re-election in April, with Mélenchon casting him as a free-marketeer more intent on protecting the wealthy than hard-up families.
Sunday's first round of legislative elections has been marred by record-low turnout - below 50 percent - confirming a trend of disinterest in the polls over the past two decades.
(with Reuters)
