French candidates bow out in concerted bid to block far-right

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00:00With the prospect of the far-right National Rally getting an overall majority in the second

00:04round of France's legislative elections, other parties are resurrecting the so-called Republican

00:09Front.

00:10The election has thrown up more than 300 three- or four-way second-round run-offs.

00:15This has prompted left-wing and centrist parties to consider giving way to other candidates

00:19better placed to defeat the National Rally.

00:22As of Monday night, more than 180 candidates had withdrawn from races.

00:26Two-thirds of these were from the left-wing New Popular Front and one-third from Emmanuel

00:31Macron's Ensemble coalition.

00:33Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, likely to lose his job after only six months, said keeping

00:38the far-right out of government was the most important thing.

00:41Quite sincerely, the stakes are so high for the French.

00:45I'm secondary in all this.

00:47What I want is to avoid the National Rally having an absolute majority because I sincerely

00:51believe that would be catastrophic for the French, for our pensioners, for their savings.

00:57For National Rally leader Jordan Bardella, the alliance intended to exclude the far-right

01:02is a sign the establishment is worried.

01:05I am not going to give any voting instructions, unlike Mr Macron and Mr Mélenchon.

01:11I believe that the French are intelligent, that they are old enough to decide for themselves.

01:15We are qualified today in 444 constituencies and for change, we must vote for the patriotic

01:21candidates of the National Rally party.

01:23But the left-wing France Insoumise party says the president's coalition has not been clear

01:27enough on urging its third-place candidates to step aside or advising supporters on who

01:32to vote for.

01:35As far as we're concerned, we applied a clear rule, in line with the principles we've always

01:40applied.

01:41It's not one vote for the National Rally, not one more seat for the National Rally.

01:45And we do hope that the Macronist camp will show the same clarity.

01:49And indeed, it's not the case, depending on who you speak to.

01:53289 seats are required for an overall majority.

01:57Failing that, parties will try to form a coalition similar to the one that has governed France

02:01for the past two years.

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