'Rigged' French election claims ridiculed after Le Pen's far-right lose to left-wing alliance

Baseless claims that an election is “rigged” because it didn’t go a certain way has long been a tactic of the right and far-right (from former US president Donald Trump to ex-Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro) and the French election has seen the same happen again, as supporters of Marine Le Pen’s National Rally or Rassamblement National (RN) complain about the far-right party not securing a majority in the country’s national assembly.

Despite RN – previously known as the National Front – leading in the first round of voting, a left-wing coalition known as New Popular Front (Nouveau Front Populaire or NFP) were projected to have secured the most seats at the end of the second round as people resorted to tactical voting to stave off the far-right.

The exit poll projected NFP – which comprises the far-left France Unbowed, socialist, green and communist parties - would bag 182 seats, with French president Emmanuel Macron’s centrist Ensemble estimated to get 163 seats and RN predicted to get 143 seats.

Prime minister Gabriel Attal had offered his resignation to Macron, but the latter has refused it.

Meanwhile Le Pen has claimed victory for the far-right has only been “delayed” following the results, while RN’s president and leader Jordan Bardella has complained that France has been “thrown to the hands of the far-left”.

The party’s supporters also aren’t happy on social media, either, though their upset has sparked ridicule from many:

While the left-wing coalition did manage to defeat the far-right in the polls, they didn’t secure the magic number needed for a majority in the national assembly either (that being 289 seats), so France now faces the prospect of a hung parliament.

Such uncertainty has led economy minister Bruno Le Maire to warn that his country is at risk of an “immediate financial crisis”.

All of this has come about after Macron announced a snap election last month after RN made significant gains in the European Union elections, with the president making the gamble in the hope that the electorate would vote to block the rise of the far-right.

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