What is the New Popular Front, surprise winner of France's election?

Jessica Phelan

10 July 2024 at 2:01 am·1-min read

Formed in haste to keep the far right out of power, the left-wing New Popular Front defied expectations to take the lead in snap elections and become the biggest bloc in France's new parliament. Who is in the alliance? What do they stand for? And now that the immediate danger is past, can they continue to work together?

The New Popular Front, known by its French initials NFP, was born of opposition.

But now, less than a month after it united France's fractured left behind the common goal of stopping the far-right National Rally (RN) surging into government, it finds itself first in line to govern.

Winning 182 seats, the alliance came out top in snap parliamentary elections that concluded last weekend, albeit around 100 seats short of the majority it would need to form a government alone.

Yet the NFP's origins suggest that translating its current momentum into lasting consensus will be far from straightforward.

Surprise election win for left-green coalition plunges France into uncertainty

Where did the New Popular Front come from?

The NFP rose from the ashes of an earlier left-wing opposition bloc: the New Ecological and Social People's Union, or Nupes.

That alliance, which comprised roughly the same members, lasted barely a year and a half. Formed to contest the last parliamentary elections in June 2022, it won around 140 seats and successfully denied President Emmanuel Macron's centrists a majority.

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Where did the New Popular Front come from?

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