More than two hundred candidates have withdrawn from participating in the second round of the French parliamentary elections. They hope to prevent a candidate from Marine Le Pen’s radical-right party Rassemblement National (RN) from winning the seat. That party aims to govern and won the first round with over 33 percent of the votes. The parliamentary elections in France are conducted in two rounds. Whoever receives more than half of the votes in the first round wins a seat directly on behalf of that constituency. If the differences are smaller, candidates with more than an eighth of the votes may proceed to the second round. That second round will be held on Sunday.

Candidates who have now withdrawn are doing so to avoid splitting the vote that could otherwise lead to an RN victory. This way, they can prevent RN from obtaining a majority in the National Assembly and forming a cabinet. Of the 214 candidates who withdrew from the second round, 126 are members of the left-wing coalition NFP, and 78 come from the camp of President Emmanuel Macron. In the parliamentary elections, the left-wing coalition finished second with over 28 percent of the votes. Macron’s party finished in third place with 20.3 percent. Majority The French parliament has 577 parliamentarians, each representing a constituency. Of them, 76 received enough support in the first round. In most of the remaining 501 districts, there are two candidates left. In 109 districts, there are three or even four candidates to choose from.

Le Pen has previously stated that her party only wants to form a government if they secure a majority, at least 289 seats. “We want to win an absolute majority in the second round,” said Le Pen. “So that our candidate Jordan Bardella becomes prime minister in eight days.” In an interview with France Inter, she seemed to backtrack on that statement. With “for example, 270” seats, the party would already make an attempt. RN will then need to find support from parliamentarians of other parties.