Conservatives in France suffered defeat in the final round of national elections, despite winning the highest percentage of the popular vote.
In last week’s first round of voting, the conservative National Rally party led the far-left New Popular Front and the establishment moderates Ensemble by wide margins, prompting the NFP and Ensemble to form a tacit alliance. On Sunday, that alliance paid off.
NFP took a total of over 180 seats; although far from a majority (289 out of 577 seats), it is the most seats garnered by any party or coalition this week. Ensemble, the coalition led by left-of-center French President Emmanuel Macron, placed second with nearly 170 seats, and RN was relegated to third place with 143 seats.
Over the course of the prior week, Ensemble had candidates resign in jurisdictions where RN was performing well, in an effort not to split the…
