Polls open in second round of French parliament vote

PARIS: Polling stations opened across mainland France on Sunday for a second-round parliamentary vote that is expected to be won by far-right leader Marine Le Pen’s National Rally (RN).

While the anti-immigration, eurosceptic party may not win an outright majority, a hung parliament would leave a divided France in political limbo and weaken its international standing.

Voting began at 8:00am (0600 GMT) and was to continue to 6:00pm, or 8:00pm in major cities, when voting estimates will be released.

After voters propelled Le Pen’s National Rally to a strong lead in the first round of snap elections, Jordan Bardella, at just 28 years old, likely to become the country’s youngest prime minister.

He helped make the far-right National Rally the strongest political force in France.

Bardella has turned to rallying supporters to hand their party an absolute majority in the decisive second round that would allow the anti-immigration, nationalist party to run the government.

Bardella is part of a generation of young people who joined the party under Marine Le Pen in the 2010s but likely wouldn’t have done so under her father.

If support is further eroded for Macron’s weak centrist majority, he will be forced to share power with parties opposed to most of his pro-business, pro-European Union policies.

The second-round voting began Saturday in France’s overseas territories from the South Pacific to the Caribbean, Indian Ocean and North Atlantic. The elections wrap up Sunday at 8 p.m. (1800 GMT) in mainland France. Initial polling projections are expected Sunday night, with early official results expected late Sunday and early Monday.