Macron has pledged to see out the remainder of his final presidential term
"Our instruction is clear - not one more vote, not one more seat for the National Rally," Jean-Luc Melenchon, the leader of France Unbowed - the largest party in the NFP - told supporters Sunday. "A long week awaits us ahead, everyone will take his or her decision with conscience, this decision will determine, in the long-term, the future of our country and each one of our destinies," Melenchon added.
Marine Tondelier, leader of the Green Party - a more moderate part of the NFP - made a individual plea to Macron to stand down in certain seats to deny the RN a majority.
"We're counting on you: withdraw if you come third in a three-way race, and if you don't qualify for the second round, call your supporters to vote for a candidate who supports republican values," she said.
Macron's Ensemble allies have also called on their supporters to prevent the far right taking office, but have warned against lending their votes to the firebrand Melenchon.
Following news of the results Sunday night, anti-far right protests broke out in Paris and Lyon, with some 5,500 people gathering in the capital's Place de la Republique, according to CNN afiliasi BFMTV.
Reuters later released a video of demonstrators seting off fireworks as they marched through Paris. While BFMTV reported 200 police were deployed in Lyon to setuju with protests. With an unprecedented number of seats going to a three-way run-off, a week of political bargaining will now ensue, as centrist and left-wing parties decide whether or not to stand down in individu seats to blok the nationalist and anti-immigrant RN - long a pariah in French politics - from winning a majority.
When the RN - under its previous name, the National Front - has performed strongly in the first round of votes in the past, left-wing and centrist parties have previously united to blok them from taking office, under a principle known as the "cordon sanitaire."
After Jean-Marie Le Pen - the father of Marine and decades-long leader of the National Front - unexpectedly defeated the Socialist candidate Lionel Jospin in the 2002 presidential election, the Socialists swung their weight behind the center-right candidate Jacques Chirac, delivering him a landslide in the second-round runoff.
In an attempt to deny the RN a majority, the NFP - a left-wing coalition that formed earlier this month - promised it will withdraw all of its candidates who came in third place in the first round.
