By Nur Asena Erturk
Protesters in various French cities took to the streets on Sunday night to demonstrate against the far-right victory in the snap parliamentary elections.
The National Rally (RN) party got 29.5% of the vote by itself -- a rate that rises over 33% when combined with its allies -- according to official results revealed by the Interior Ministry.
The RN alone got more than 9.37 million votes, which gives the party 37 seats in the parliament.
The left-wing alliance New Popular Front received 27.99% (over 8.9 million votes) and came in second with 32 seats.
The centrist Together for the Republic alliance backed by French President Emmanuel Macron ranked third with slightly over 20.04% (over 6.4 million votes), securing only two seats.
Nearly 8,000 people gathered in central Paris, police reportedly said, shouting against the RN victory. Some of them were waving left-wing parties’ flags, as well as Palestinian flags, according to the daily Le Figaro.
Some shops and street furniture were occasionally vandalized in Paris.
In the western city of Nantes, police intervened with tear gas on protesters and dispersed the crowd during a spontaneous manifestation.
Tensions rose in the eastern city of Lyon, where some groups built barricades and targeted police officers.
- Political calculations
Some candidates managed to be elected in the first round of the elections, however, as the country is gearing up for the second round on July 7, political parties started working on various solutions, mostly to counter the victorious RN.
Many candidates from the left-wing alliance and Macron’s centrist bloc announced that they would step down in the second round to make room for each other so that voters would have to decide between two candidates - either the RN candidate or another party.
These two blocs are hoping that the voters would disfavor the RN.
President Macron is expected to meet with Prime Minister Gabriel Attal’s current government at midday to discuss the situation.