Paris (AFP) - French candidates faced a Tuesday deadline to stay in or quit the weekend’s runoff election, with over 160 withdrawing so far in an effort to block the far right from winning an absolute majority.

France votes Sunday in the decisive final round of the snap legislative polls President Emmanuel Macron called after his camp received a drubbing in European polls last month.

His gamble appears to have backfired, with the far-right National Rally (RN) of Marine Le Pen scoring a victory in the June 30 first round with more than 10.6 million votes.

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 and the left have urged a broad “Republican Front” to stop the anti-immigration and eurosceptic party of Le Pen.

The rivals are hoping that putting their differences aside ahead of the runoff with tactical withdrawals will prevent the RN winning an absolute majority of 289 seats in the 577-seat National Assembly.

On Tuesday, Le Pen said her party would seek to form a government and make her 28-year-old protege Jordan Bardella prime minister from a minimum of “for example, 270 deputies” and then find support from 19 more MPs.

“If we then have a majority, then yes, of course, we’ll go and do what the voters elected us to do”, she told broadcaster France Inter.

If Bardella becomes prime minister, this would create a tense period of “cohabitation” with Macron, who has vowed to serve out his term until 2027.

- ‘No vote for RN’ -

Just 76 lawmakers, almost all from the far right and left were elected outright in the first round of voting at the weekend.

The fate of the remaining 501 seats will be determined in the second round in run-offs between two or three remaining candidates or, in just a handful of cases, four.

Ahead of Tuesday’s 6:00 pm (1600 GMT) deadline for registration for the second round, more than 160 candidates had already dropped out in three-way battles to prevent the RN winning, according to an AFP tally.

The majority of those to have dropped out are from the left-wing coalition, although pro-Macron candidates are also giving way to help left-wing rivals, including three junior ministers, all of them women.

But even the building of the united front against the RN has not been easy.

Many voices in the Macron camp, including notably former prime minister Edouard Philippe, have argued they should not help candidates from the LFI which is accused by its critics of extremism and failing to back Israel after the October 7 attack by Hamas.

“No vote for the RN. But I refuse to vote for LFI,” added Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire, the only senior minister to have served since Macron came to power in 2017.

- ‘Catastrophic’ -

Most projections in the immediate aftermath of the first round showed the RN falling short of an absolute majority.

Analysts say the most likely outcome is a hung parliament that could lead to months of political paralysis, at a time when France is hosting the Olympics.

The chaos also risks damaging the international credibility of Macron, a champion of Ukraine’s fight against the Russian invasion who is set to attend a NATO summit in Washington immediately after the vote.

Prime Minister Gabriel Attal said in a television interview late Monday it “would be catastrophic for the French” to give the far right an absolute majority.

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

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

France’s Euro 2024 star Jules Kounde was the latest football player to call on voters to block the far right.

“Obviously I was disappointed to see the direction our country is taking with a big level of support for a party that is against our values of unity and respect, and that wants to divide the French people,” said Kounde, after France beat Belgium 1-0 in Duesseldorf to reach the Euro 2024 quarter-finals.

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