THE FRENCH head to the polls on June 30th for the first round of their most crucial election in modern times. After President Emmanuel Macron unexpectedly called a snap parliamentary election, they will cast their first vote for candidates to the 577-seat National Assembly, ahead of a second round on July 7th. Polls suggest that Mr Macron’s centrists might collapse, losing half their 250 seats, or worse. Marine Le Pen’s hard-right could reach close to a majority, up from 88 seats today. Her party has never been so close to governing France.

This is an election that captures many of the political dynamics across Europe, as politicians of the liberal centre attempt to fend off the rise of the extremes. In France, the two-round parliamentary system has in the past kept fringe parties a minority electoral force; a cordon sanitaire thwarted governing alliances with them. Neither Ms Le Pen’s National Rally (RN), nor its previous incarnation under her father, the far-right National Front, has ever come near to holding power at national level.