Analysts say the far-right party has benefited from public anger at Macron, whose pro-business reforms have spurred the economy but…

French growth was only 0.9% in 2023, inflation is finally starting to slow down but was violent until recently and therefore purchasing power has collapsed, and unemployment has fallen mainly thanks to write-offs.

What a “spurred” economy!

This is the best summary I could come up with:

The far-right National Rally (RN) has strengthened in final polls, including one suggesting it could be on course for a historic parliamentary majority, as candidates fought for votes on the last day of campaigning before the first-round ballot in France’s most momentous election for decades.

One poll, for Les Echos newspaper, showed RN could win 37% of the national vote, two points more than a week ago, while another, for BFM TV, estimated the far-right party was on course for 260-295 seats – potentially giving it an outright majority.

A hung parliament, with Macron’s forces squeezed between two hostile bigger blocs, would lead to near-certain deadlock, while an RN majority would deliver a fraught cohabitation with a party radically opposed to the president on almost everything.

In a televised debate on Thursday evening, Bardella sought to reassure voters about RN’s foreign policy, saying he would “not let Russian imperialism absorb an allied state like Ukraine”, although he was opposed to sending long-range missiles to Kyiv.

Separately on Thursday, France’s media watchdog, Arcom, warned one of the country’s leading radio stations, Europe 1, over a two-hour elections talkshow presented every morning during the campaign by the controversial host Cyril Hanouna.

Hanouna, whose evening TV show has been fined a total of €7.5m (£6.36m) by Arcom for breaching rules on political balance, recently told listeners the leftist NFP alliance sought “the destruction of the republic, of the country and of our civilisation”.

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