Day: July 2, 2024

PARIS — Candidates in France on Tuesday faced a deadline to register for the run-off round of a high-stakes parliamentary election, as President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist camp and a left-wing alliance scrambled to prevent the far right from taking power.

On Sunday, French people go to polls for the decisive final round of the snap election Macron called after his camp received a drubbing in European elections last month.

His gamble appears to have backfired, with the far-right National Rally (RN) of Marine Le Pen scoring a victory in the first round of voting last Sunday.

Macron’s centrists trailed in third place behind the left-wing New Popular Front alliance.

Faced with the prospect of the far right taking power in France for the first time since the country’s occupation by Nazi Germany during World War II, Macron’s camp has begun cooperating with the New Popular Front alliance which includes the hard-left France Unbowed party.

The rivals are hoping that tactical voting will prevent the RN winning the 289 seats needed for an absolute majority.

Macron has called for a “broad” democratic coalition against the far right, with the political crisis overshadowing France’s preparations for the Olympic Games this summer.

Speaking to broadcaster TF1 on Monday evening, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal once again urged voters not to give the far-right an absolute majority.

“That would be catastrophic for the French,” he said, adding that the far-right would fuel divisions in society.

Third-place candidates who qualified for the second round have been urged to drop out to present a united front against the far right.

The deadline to decide whether to stand down is 6 pm Tuesday. According to a provisional count by AFP, more than 150 left-wing or centrist candidates have already dropped out.           

“Only a strong republican front, uniting the left, center and conservatives, can keep the far right at bay and prevent France from tipping over,” daily newspaper Le Monde said in an editorial.

Le Pen has urged voters to give the RN an absolute majority, which would see Jordan Bardella, the 28-year-old RN chief with no governing experience, become prime minister.

But most projections show the RN falling short of an absolute majority — although the final outcome remains far from certain.

The RN garnered 33 percent of the vote last Sunday, compared to 28 percent for the New Popular Front alliance and just over 20 percent for Macron’s camp.

Speaking on television on Monday night, Bardella derided efforts by Macron’s camp and the left-wing coalition to put up a united front, suggesting that the “dishonorable” alliance had been formed out of desperation.

He accused the French president of coming “to the rescue of a violent extreme-left movement” he himself had denounced just days ago.

Macron convened a cabinet meeting Monday to decide a further course of action.

“Let’s not be mistaken. It’s the far right that’s on its way to the highest office, no one else,” he said at the meeting, according to one participant.

The emotion was palpable, with several ministers dropping out of the race.

“We’ve known happier meetings,” one minister told Le Monde.

Analysts say the most likely outcome of the snap election is a hung parliament that could lead to months of political paralysis and chaos.

With a total of 76 candidates elected in the first round, the final composition of the 577-seat National Assembly will be clear only after the second round.

The second round will see a three-way or two-way run-off in the remainder of the seats to be decided, although a tiny number of four-way run-offs are also possible.

SYDNEY — Australia’s Labor government is facing a backlash from the Muslim community over its suspension of an Afghan-born lawmaker.

Senator Fatima Payman, an Australian Muslim, says she has been exiled after voting against party lines on issues around Palestinian statehood.

Australia advocates a two-state solution in which Israel and a future Palestinian state coexist within internationally recognized borders. Payman was suspended after voting against her own party to recognize Palestine as a state in federal Parliament.  

The Kabul-born lawmaker told reporters that Australia “cannot believe in two state solutions and only recognize one.” 

Payman has promised to defy the government again if the issue is again put to the vote. 

The battle between the senator for Western Australia and the governing Labor party revolves around its so-called “solidarity” rule that requires all its lawmakers to vote as a bloc. 

Senator Katy Gallagher, Australia’s federal Finance minister, told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. Tuesday that Payman has breached party regulations. 

“These are decisions that she has taken knowing quite clearly what the consequences would be and, you know, she has continued to make those decisions,” Gallagher said. “So, I certainly, and I know a lot of my colleagues, would want her to remain with the Labor caucus but she also has to give a commitment that some of the decisions she has taken in the last week would not be repeated.”   

There is speculation the suspended senator could quit the Labor Party and stay in parliament as an independent, switch her political allegiance to the Australian Greens or form her own political party.   

Reports also suggest she could join a new political organization called The Muslim Vote, which is planning to run candidates on a pro-Palestinian platform in some of the governing Labor party’s safest parliamentary seats. 

Under Australia’s voting electoral system, Payman was elected in May 2022 and would serve up to six years in parliament. 

The campaign group, the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network, said in a statement it “stands firmly” with Payman and urged other lawmakers to follow her example.   

The Muslim senator was born in Afghanistan and was a child when she arrived as a refugee in Australia with her family.   

Her indefinite suspension from the governing party is a further sign that the war in Gaza is causing political and social tensions in Australia. 

Community groups have reported an increase in Islamophobic and antisemitic abuse in Australia since Israel’s war in Gaza began almost nine months ago.   

Australia has said Israel has the right to defend itself after the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas militants.