France is voting in one of its most significant elections in years, with the far right hoping for a historic victory, but with political stalemate the more likely result.
This is the first time the anti-immigration National Rally (RN) of Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella has had a realistic chance of running the government and taking outright control of the National Assembly.
But after the RN’s first-round victory in snap parliamentary elections last Sunday, more than 200 rival candidates dropped out to give others a better chance of defeating the far right.
Voting began in mainland France at 08:00 (06:00 GMT) and the first exit polls will be released 12 hours later.
Whatever the result, it is difficult to see President Emmanuel Macron coming out of this well.
Four weeks ago, he said it was the responsible solution to call a snap vote in response to the RN’s victory in European elections, minutes after the party’s 28-year-old leader Jordan Bardella challenged him to do so.
The two-round election came as a shock to a country gearing up for the start of the Paris Olympics on 26 July. Security was already tight and now 30,000 police have been deployed for a period of heightened political tension.
