PARIS, June 13. /TASS/. The ruling bloc Ensemble! (Together!) and a left-wing coalition the New Ecologic and Social People's Union" (NUPES) show almost the same result in the first round of the parliamentary elections in France, gaining 25.7% and 25.6% of the vote, respectively. This is according to preliminary data on the processing of 100% of the ballots published by the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
Marine Le Pen's National Rally party comes third with 18.7% of votes, the Republicans are on the fourth place with10.4%.
Representatives of Eric Zemmour's Reconquete (Reconquest) party come fifth with 4.2% of the vote. The remaining parties and unions did not overcome the 4% mark.
The vote was held at the lowest turnout in the history of the Fifth Republic. According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, 52.5% of the French on the electoral lists did not come to the polling stations. Prior to this, the worst turnout in the first round of the parliamentary elections was recorded in 2017, when 51.7% of voters were missing at the polling stations.
However, France does not have a requirement for a minimum turnout for the vote to be declared valid. Observers note that the country's residents have been gradually losing interest in parliamentary elections over the past 30 years.