Former prime minister Elisabeth Borne came second in the first round of legislative elections on Sunday, June 30, as she seeks re-election in the 6th constituency of Calvados, in Normandy. Borne obtained 28.93% of the vote, behind the far-right Rassemblement National (RN) candidate Nicolas Calbrix (36.26%) and that of the left-wing Nouveau Front Populaire alliance, Noé Gauchard (23.16%) of the radical left party La France Insoumise. Borne qualified for the second round. All three qualified for the second round, but Gauchard may pull out, if he applies the instructions from his party's leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who called for third-placed left-wing candidates to withdraw in favor of better-placed candidates to beat the far right.
Borne was prime minister from June 2022, after President Emmanuel Macron's re-election, to January 2024, when she was replaced by Gabriel Attal. As the head of the government, she carried a highly controversial pension reform and faced some 30 motions of no confidence in the Assemblée Nationale.
In 2022, she won the second round in her district with 52.5% of the vote against Gauchard, who was running for the left-wing parties then united under the NUPES banner. In the European elections, the RN obtained 34% of the vote in her constituency.
Translation of an original article published in French on lemonde.fr; the publisher may only be liable for the French version.