Tens of millions across the French Republic will decide today (Sunday) how the French parliament will look in the coming years, with many districts offering a choice between the far right and the far left.
For the Jewish community in the country, it is a difficult choice, as many remember and fear the anti-Semitic past of the far-right National Front on the one hand, and on the other fear the anti-Israeli stance of the far-left founded by Jean-Luc Melenchon.
In France, the electoral system is regional, with the country divided into 577 constituencies, each sending one representative to the National Assembly. Under the country's electoral laws, a candidate must obtain at least 50% of the votes in the district in which he is running, and in the event that no candidate obtains 50%, a second round of voting is held between all candidates who received more than 12.5% of the vote. In the first round of voting, only 76 members were elected, with the victors in the remaining races to be determined today.
In many regions of France, three or more candidates advanced to the second round, which prompted the Macron-led Rennaisance Party and the La France Insoumise coalition of far-left and even anti-Semitic elements to declare war on the far right. As part of the war, it was decided that in any district where a Rennaisance candidate received more votes than a leftist coalition candidate, the leftist coalition candidate would withdraw and support the Rennaisance candidate. The same was decided in the opposite case - where a leftist coalition candidate received more votes.
Thus both parties hope to create a situation in which they will be able to prevent the National Rally from gaining an absolute majority in the parliament. Due to the political maneuvering of the two parties, the poll picture has changed, from a National Rally majority to a win of about 200 seats - a significant increase for the party from its current 89 seats, but this will not give the party an absolute majority.
The agreement of the radical leftist parties' alliance with Macron's party has resulted in many districts where the choice is between the far-left candidate and the far-right candidate. This poses a challenge for many voters in France who do not want to see extremist elements in the parliament, but an even bigger problem for the Jewish voter who fears the anti-Semitic past of the far-right party on the one hand and the anti-Israeli alliance of the far-left party on the other. Melenchon's far-left party has become less and less of an alternative even for left-wing Jews, especially after October 7 when he and senior members of his party have refused to condemn the massacre perpetrated by Hamas.