Candidates exit French runoff to block far right

A campaigner distributes election leaflets of the French far-right Rassemblement National (RN) for RN candidate Sandrine Chadourne on July 2, 2024 at a market in Libourne, southwestern France.

More than 200 centrist and left-wing candidates pulled out of France's legislative election runoff ahead of a Tuesday deadline, in a move President Emmanuel Macron hopes will block the far right from winning power.

France votes Sunday in the final round of snap legislative polls Macron called seeking a "clarification" in politics after his camp was trounced in European elections last month.

His gamble backfired, with the far-right National Rally (RN) of Marine Le Pen winning the June 30 first round. But the key suspense now is whether the RN can get enough seats to form a government.

Faced with the prospect of the far right taking power for the first time since France's occupation by Nazi Germany during World War II, Macron's camp and the left have urged a broad "Republican Front" to stop Le Pen's anti-immigration and eurosceptic party.

With the clock ticking to a deadline later Tuesday to register, over 200 pro-Macron or left-wing candidates had pulled out of contests to prevent the RN winning seats.

Le Pen appeared to row back on previous comments that the RN would only form a government with an absolute majority of 289 of the 577 seats in the National Assembly, saying it would still try if slightly below this figure.

She said her party would seek to form a government and make her 28-year-old protege Jordan Bardella prime minister from a minimum of "for example, 270 deputies" and then find support from 19 more MPs.

"If we then have a majority, then yes, of course, we'll go and do what the voters elected us to do", she...