A surprising second round left France with a diverse, multicolored electoral map, a stark contrast to the first round when 93 percent of the territory backed Marine Le Pen’s National Rally. About 42.2 million French voters were invited to cast ballots on Sunday, somewhat fewer than in the first round. Once again, turnout reached historic levels not seen since 1997. Yet despite the new Assembly’s makeup, the far right achieved its strongest showing to date, surpassing 10.1 million votes.
No poll, expert, or politician could predict the Sunday surprise. Everything pointed to a far-right victory without an absolute majority, but that did not happen. The sanitary cordon and the pact between Macronists and the New Popular Front, with candidates withdrawing in constituencies where triangulations occurred, worked. Not only did the left unite win the elections, but Le Pen was relegated to a third place.
Over the past two years, from the 2022 legislative elections to last Sunday, 155 of 577 constituencies changed hands, 80 of them toward the right. Yet in just one week, between the two rounds, France’s electoral map shifted dramatically.
La capital remains steady
Paris, with a long tradition of progressivism, resists the rise of the far right. In the first round of the legislative elections, the Île-de-France region stood out as a singular point in a country increasingly tinted by the dark blue of the far right.
In this second round, six Paris constituencies elected Macron and Ensemble candidates, while the rest chose the New Popular Front, preserving a long-standing pattern. An exception existed in the Paris region, Mantes-la-Ville, a small town governed for ten years by a National Rally mayor. Yet in these legislative elections, a left coalition candidate, Benjamin Lucas, defeated the far-right incumbent Cyril Nauth with 63.55 percent.
France’s rural landscape
Even with the hot data on the table, the early assessments suggested something unexpected. Rural France had traditionally been a stronghold for the far right. Administrative neglect, farmer protests, and inflation that pushed up basic goods played a decisive role in steering votes toward Le Pen’s party in many of these areas, some with a deep socialist history. In Agen, the birthplace of France’s green-vest movement, the far right led in the first round; in the second, the New Popular Front emerged victorious with 52.32 percent.
The latest results reveal a further shift: 65 constituencies moved toward the left, meaning some areas swung from the far right to the right, but more notably many shifted from center-right to the left.
In Essonne, the insurgent candidate Berenger Cernon defeated centrist Nicolas Dupont-Aignan. The left also triumphed in Vaucluse and Lyon, and in Corrèze former president François Hollande secured the majority of votes.
In Marseille, the National Rally consolidated its position after the second round, gaining two to three additional seats. Nearby areas like Avignon, Nimes, Carcassonne, and Perpignan continued to see far-right strength across the southwest. In the north, Pas de Calais retained ten seats for the lepenist camp, where issues of irregular immigration persist as a central concern.
A delayed victory
“It is a delayed victory”, Marine Le Pen remarked after learning of the defeat in these elections. Even in third place, National Rally posted the party’s best historical numbers, and the far right is already marshaling for the 2027 presidential elections.
The anxiety over the far-right advance does not fade. The sanitary cordon remains in place, though its stamina is wearing thin. The prime minister acknowledged during the campaign that the message had been heard, and if they emerged victorious, they would govern differently. The question now is whether the Macronist bloc, despite its lowest popularity ratings, can seize the second chance at governing and translate that into durable reform.
In the end the mass of data, regional results, and the stubborn persistence of a politically polarized country creates a new tableau. It is a map that suggests both a possible realignment of political loyalties and a test for the strategies of both the left and the right as France debates its future direction.