Despite the stakes, abstention is expected to be particularly high in the first round with an 18.43% turnout at noon of more than 48 million registered voters, still down from the 2017, legislative election that ended the day with a historic low. since 1958 which is 48.7 %.

Polling stations open at 8 am and close at 6 pm except in major cities including Paris, where the deadline has been extended to 8 pm, when the first estimates are expected from polling institutions. The second round will take place in a week, on June 19th.

According to the latest polls of voting intentions published on Friday, the presidential coalition is neck and neck with the alliance of left-wing parties grouped behind Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who finished third in the presidential election. .

Marine Le Pen’s far -right party, the finalist in the presidential election on April 24, will go to third position, far from the traditional right, which could lose its status as the leading opposition group.

So these legislative elections should confirm the broad recomposition of the French political landscape that began when Mr. Macron in 2017.

Projections on the number of seats, which are more uncertain, on the other hand give the presidential coalition an advantage, but tend to gain an absolute majority – 289 deputies out of 577 – globally declining during the latest opinion polls, as which is also the interest shown by voters.

In Saint-Sulpice-la-Forêt (Brittany, West), Arnaud Davy, 61, who vote in all electionslooking for less enthusiasm than the presidential election, less talk by the people.

For Mauricette, 73, who was one of the first voters in Pantin, in the suburbs of Paris, we live in a relatively complex time, a fortiori that is more important to show going to the polls.

Mr. Macron mobilized at the end of the campaign, calling on the French to give him a strong and clear majority. He stood as a bastion against extremetargeting the radical left of Mr. Mélenchon and the extreme right of Marine Le Pen, which is synonymous according to him of chaos for France.

Most, not entirely, but relative, will complicate the path of reforms he wants to undertake for his second term, specifically on pensions.

On the less likely hypothesis or the left led by Jean-Luc Mélenchon would win an absolute majority, which would impose on him an unprecedented residency for a president to be re-elected, he would be deprived of almost all his power in internal politics.

He will no longer set the country’s policy, but the majority in the National Assembly and the Prime Minister will come from it.summarizes Dominique Rousseau, professor of constitutional law at Panthéon-Sorbonne University.

Mr. Mélenchon, a veteran of French political life, established himself as his main opponent by leading an unprecedented alliance that brought together socialists, communists, ecologists and his own movement, and in by leading the most dynamic campaign, according to analysts.

The left proposes an economic program that plans to inject 250 billion euros (336 billion Canadian dollars) into the economy (against 267 billion in revenue), including 125 billion in aid, subsidies and redistribution of wealth.

The election takes place in a climate of concern to the French in the face of rising food and energy prices.

The government reminds that France has the lowest inflation rate (5.2% in May for a year) in Europe and promises new measures to preserve purchasing power after the election.

The final result of the legislative elections in a week could influence the composition of the executive formed on May 20, fifteen of its members, including Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne, the candidates. However, they will have to resign at the chance of losing, under an unwritten rule, but already applied in 2017 by Emmanuel Macron.

In Guadeloupe, in the French West Indies, where we voted on Saturday, as in some territories outside mainland France, Secretary of State for the Sea Justine Benin was on a favorable ballot against a different leftist candidate.