France votes as far-right National Rally aims to form government

French voters headed to the polls on Sunday in the first round of a snap parliamentary election that could usher in the country’s first far-right government since World War II, a potential sea change at the heart of the European Union.

President Emmanuel Macron stunned the country when he called the vote after his centrist alliance was crushed in European elections this month by Marine Le Pen’s National Rally (RN). Her Eurosceptic, anti-immigrant party was a long-time pariah but is now closer to power than it has ever been.

Polls opened at 6am GMT (2pm Hong Kong time) and will close at 4pm GMT in small towns and cities, with a 6pm GMT finish in the bigger cities, when the first exit polls for the night and seat projections for the decisive second round a week later are expected.

Participation was high, underlining how France’s rumbling political crisis has energised the electorate. By midday, turnout was at 25.9 per cent, compared with 18.43 per cent two years ago – the highest comparable turnout figures since the 1981 legislative vote, Ipsos France’s research director Mathieu Gallard said.

France’s electoral system can make it hard to estimate the precise distribution of seats in the 577-seat National Assembly, and the final outcome will not be known until the end of voting on July 7.

“We are going to win an absolute majority,” Le Pen said in a newspaper interview on Wednesday, predicting that her protégé, 28-year-old Jordan Bardella, would be prime minister. Her party has a high-spending economic programme and seeks to reduce immigration.