Protests rocked Paris and several other cities across France after French President Emmanuel Macron’s party suffered massive losses in Sunday’s first round of parliamentary elections. Marine Le Pen’s right-wing populist party, the National Rally Alliance, was the big winner.
National Rally, according to Politico, came out of the first round with 34% of the vote — up from 18.7% in 2022 — which means that it is possible for them to win an outright majority next week.
Macron’s Ensemble Coalition, largely viewed as centrist, finished third in the vote count with 20% (down from 25.8% in 2022). The far left party came away with 28.1%, which Politico reported as a “strong showing” but not likely strong enough to follow it up with a majority win next week.
In the wake of the elections, left-wing protesters — reportedly an amalgam of French socialists, communists, and…
