Silence, we vote, again. After the end of the campaign on Friday at midnight, more than 48 million French people are again called to the polls this weekend and the following one to elect their deputies, six weeks after the presidential election which renewed Emmanuel Macron at the Elysée.

In French Polynesia and in the eleven constituencies of French people living abroad, the first round has already taken place on June 4 and 5. It led to the resounding elimination of former Prime Minister Manuel Valls and the emergence of ten duels which will pit the presidential majority against the left-wing coalition, the Nupes (New Popular and Ecological Union), in the second round.

Now make way for the rest of the Overseas Territories with, in the order of the opening of the polling stations according to the time difference, Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon, Guyana, the West Indies, Wallis and Futuna, New Caledonia, Reunion and Mayotte, before the metropolis on Sunday at 08:00.

If the ballot is different, the three candidates who came first in the presidential election redo the match in the legislative elections, with the winner Emmanuel Macron who indirectly faces the finalist RN Marine Le Pen and the Insoumis Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who came third on April 24.

While the Macron-Le Pen duel had punctuated the presidential election, the rivalry this time took hold between the camp of the head of state and the left-wing alliance formed around Jean-Luc Mélenchon (LFI-PS-EELV -PCF), which the polls give neck and neck, with abstention as a referee.

It could reach, at the end of a campaign passed largely under the radar, new records, between 52 and 56%, beyond the 51.3% of June 11, 2017.

According to the latest opinion polls, the presidential coalition and the Nupes are key, far ahead of the RN of Marine Le Pen.

Follow behind Les Républicains and the UDI as well as the Reconquête! party, the far-right formation led by Eric Zemmour, who presents himself in the Var.

– “Third round” –

To obtain an absolute majority at the end of the second round on June 19, the confederation Together! (LREM, MoDem, Horizons and Agir) must win at least 289 of the 577 seats, an objective that the polls present as uncertain, even if they give Macronie the lead in the projections of seats in the second round.

If Together! comes first, but without reaching the magic bar of 289 elected, Emmanuel Macron would only have a relative majority in the National Assembly. A grim prospect for the President of the Republic who will no doubt have to seek the support of other political groups to approve the texts.

If, in the least likely scenario, Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s Nupes wins an absolute majority, Emmanuel Macron would be deprived of practically all his powers.

“It is no longer he who will determine the policy of the Nation, but the majority in the National Assembly and the Prime Minister who will come from it”, summarizes Dominique Rousseau, professor of constitutional law at the University Panthéon-Sorbonne.

It is with this objective in mind that Jean-Luc Mélenchon has kept repeating that he wanted to make these legislative elections “a third round” which will allow him to be elected “Prime Minister”, despite a reservoir of votes which risk of failing him in the second round.

Emmanuel Macron, who made four trips during the campaign, chose to pose, as during the presidential election, as a bulwark against “the extremes”.

Criticizing the lack of credibility of the Nupes on the economic level, he calls for a “strong and clear” majority in order to be able to implement his program.

Including Elisabeth Borne, fifteen members of the government are in the running for the legislative elections and will have to leave the executive in the event of defeat in accordance with a rule already applied in 2017 by Emmanuel Macron.

Nearly 6,300 candidates are vying for the 577 seats, i.e. 20% less than in 2017, due in particular to the agreement on the left.