Quotes
Shameful Macron who, by calling for ‘blocs’ against the National Rally in the second round, behaves like any other Von der Leyen and tries in every way to oppose a change expressed by millions of French people, in Paris and in Brussels."
Italian deputy prime minister and leader of far-right Lega Matteo Salvini lashed out at Emmanuel Macron and European Commission president Ursula Von der Leyen on social media, writing on X We need an absolute majority so that [RN leader] Jordan Bardella can be appointed prime minister in a week’s time."
Europe is waking up! Soon, it will be Portugal!"
André Ventura, leader of Portugal’s Chega party, called the National Rally's results "a great victory", adding A hung parliament could make it hard to get anything done in France in the current parliament, which is exactly what the markets would like.”
Kathleen Brooks, research director at XTB, added If they know they're not going to win, I'm calling on them to stand down and let the national side win,
RN lawmaker Laure Lavalette told RTL radio I think it's a slight 'well, there were no surprises', so there was a sense of relief there,
said Fiona Cincotta, senior markets analyst at City Index Le Pen’s failure to seize power is likely to prove an existential crisis delayed, rather than avoided
I aim to be prime minister for all the French people if the French give us their votes,
said 28-year-old RN party leader Jordan Bardella, as quoted by the BBC We can say with lucidity that the detoxification of the National Rally is reaching its final stages,
said Bruno Cautrès, a political analyst with Sciences Po institutes As the left has made Macron its big opponent, and Mélenchon and Macron have spent months fighting a huge political battle, it’s hard to resuscitate the cordon sanitaire,
said Bruno Jeanbart, a pollster from OpinionWay Without a clear majority, there will always be old feudalisms, wilful inertia and political maneuvering that will wreck the true alternative that the country needs,
Le Pen said during a campaign event in the Eastern town of Hénin-Beaumont They won the European election three times in a row and Marine Le Pen twice got through to the second round of the presidential election; if they win France’s second-most-important election [the parliamentary election], they’ve become mainstream,
Our guideline is simple and clear: Not a single more vote for the National Rally,
France Unbowed leader Jean-Luc Melenchon said The French have shown their willingness to turn the page on a contemptuous and corrosive power,
Le Pen told the cheering crowd I will be a 'cohabitation' prime minister, respectful of the constitution and of the office of president of the republic, but uncompromising about the policies we will implement,
Le Pen had a slightly smaller margin than some of the polls had pointed to, which may have helped the euro a little bit higher on the open,
He has no grassroots network... the people around him are the same, they don't express the mood of the times,
We have seven days to spare France from catastrophe,
said Raphael Glucksmann, a key figure in the left-wing alliance Nothing is won and the second round is decisive,
Le Pen, who has long worked to distance the party from its extremist origins, told supporters I will be a ‘cohabitation’ prime minister,
he said, referring to the fact that Mr Macron will remain president