Record 37 French parties fielding lists for EU election

Nearly 3,000 candidates will be in the running for France’s 81 seats in the European Parliament, as a record 37 parties are fielding lists for the 9 June elections. Along with the established parties that have national politicians are a slew of single-issue lists that are hoping to get over five percent of the vote and win a seat in the assembly.

After Friday evening’s deadline, the Interior Ministry published the official list of candidates for the 9 June European elections: 37 parties, three more than in 2019.

Each list must have 81 candidates to fill the number of seats France has in the 720-member assembly, which means there are 2997 people in the running.

The far right National Rally has been polling ahead of all the parties, with over 30 percent of the vote, followed by the ruling Renaissance party and the Socialists.

The hard left France Unbowed conservative Republicains and green EELV party are polling at about ten percent.

Along with the established greens are several smaller environmental groups fielding candidates on different ends of the political spectrum.


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