The French president hopes to get an absolute majority to carry out tough reforms.
Voting has begun in France for the second round of parliamentary elections, with increased support for the left-wing alliance threatening the newly re-elected President Emmanuel Macron’s hopes for an absolute majority.
Voting begins Sunday at 8:00 (06:00 GMT) and closes at 20:00.
Macron faces a challenge from NUPES, a new left-wing alliance led by former Socialist Jean-Luc Melenchon. The rejuvenated left is struggling as rampant inflation raises the cost of living and sends shockwaves to the French political landscape.
In the first round of voting last Sunday, both sides were in the lead with 26 percent. In the second round, the initial field of candidates in almost all 577 constituencies has been reduced to two competing contestants.
Macron’s coalition hopes to win an absolute majority of 289 seats to carry out tough reforms.
Opinion polls predict that Macron’s “Joint” coalition of center-right and center-right parties will end up with the largest number of seats, but say there is no guarantee that it will reach the absolute majority.
The far right is also likely to achieve its greatest parliamentary success in decades.
Al Jazeera’s Jonah Hull, reporting from Paris, said the center-right and left-wing coalitions had “radically different ideas on what to do about France’s problems”.
Centrists aim to lower taxes, reform welfare system benefits and raise the retirement age, while the left plans to tax the rich, raise the minimum wage and lower the retirement age.
Failure to reach an absolute majority would require a degree of power-sharing between the parties, which had not been seen in France for decades, or would have led to prolonged paralysis and repeated parliamentary elections.
If Macron and his allies lose an absolute majority by just a few seats, they could rob center-right or Conservative MPs. If they lose it by a wider margin, they could seek an alliance with the Conservatives or lead a minority government that will have to negotiate laws on a case-by-case basis with other parties.
Hull said less than half of the French electorate went to the polls in the first round, raising concerns about turnout. “Low turnout will tend not to favor the headlines,” he added.
Turnout at noon was 18.99 percent, higher than at the same time during a first round of voting last Sunday and in 2017, when it only reached 18.43 and 17.75 percent respectively.
Macron won a second term in April, defeating his far-right rival Marine Le Pen by a comfortable margin. After electing a president, French voters have traditionally used the legislative polls that follow a few weeks later to give their newly elected leader a comfortable parliamentary majority.