France heads to the polls on Sunday for the first round of its most crucial election in decades, as the spectre of a hard-Right government looms over Emmanuel Macron, the president.

The French leader called the vote after he was trounced by Marine Le Pen’s National Rally in European elections in June.

This was a momentous decision that shocked France and took Mr Macron’s closest aides by surprise, according to some reports.

Mr Macron says the European results forced his hand in declaring this election, which he hopes will be a chance for voters to reject the hard-Right and put him back in the driving seat.

But critics say it is a reckless gamble which could backfire spectacularly by propelling the hard-Right into government.

When is the French election and how will it work?

There will be a first round of legislative elections choosing députés (MPs) for France’s National Assembly (lower house of parliament) on June 30, followed by a run-off on July 7.

Legislative elections unfold in two rounds. In the first, voters tend to choose with their hearts not their heads, picking the candidate who best reflects their values.

But if no candidate secures a 50 per cent majority, which is often the case, the vote goes to a run-off.

To qualify for the July run-off, candidates need first-round votes amounting to at least 12.5 per cent of registered voters, and the top scorer wins the second round.

At this point “le vote utile”, tactical voting, often comes into play. Sometimes a weaker candidate steps aside so it becomes a two-horse race, for example between a mainstream candidate and a far-Right candidate. This can allow voters of various views to band together to block a rival whom they deem beyond the pale.

The alliance which manages to secure a majority in the lower house of parliament then forms a government to serve under the president.

When will the results be announced?

Voting ends at 8pm local time (7pm BST), when pollsters publish nationwide projections based on a partial vote count.

These are usually reliable, with official results trickling in from 8pm.

Vote counting is usually fast and efficient and the winners of all, or nearly all, seats will be known by the end of the evening.

Who is in the running?

According to the polls, the frontrunner in this race is the hard-Right National Rally, led by Marine Le Pen in parliament and overall by Jordan Bardella, a youthful, energetic new face in the party.

In second place is a Left-wing alliance, the Popular Front, formed from centre-Left, hard-Left and Green parties.

Trailing them both in third place is Mr Macron’s centrist alliance Ensemble, which has been on the ropes since losing its absolute majority in parliament in 2022.

And that is why this election feels like such a gamble for the French leader: the polls suggest he will fail to secure a majority and wind up as a lame duck president.

If so, he will presumably remain in office, but will have little influence over domestic policy-making and only some control over foreign policy and defence.

If Mr Macron doesn’t secure a majority, which seems likely at this stage, he will have to engage in a French political system called “cohabitation”.

What is cohabitation?

When the president’s own alliance has no majority, he must appoint a prime minister from the alliance which beat him; this is very rare.

It has happened only three times in the history of the modern Republic, once when Jacques Chirac, conservative president, appointed Lionel Jospin, the socialist prime minister, in 1997.

Whoever that prime minister might be – the polls suggest the National Rally leader – they will be accountable to parliament, lead the government and introduce bills.

The president retains some authority over foreign policy, such as holding the nuclear codes, and in theory they can veto the prime minister’s laws, though parliament can overrule this with its majority.

If the National Rally secures an absolute majority, Mr Macron will be left as a lame duck.

What if Macron manages to secure a majority?

In this highly unlikely scenario, the Macron presidency bounces back: he can retake control of his parliament, appoint an Ensemble prime minister and forge ahead with his reforms.

He will be able to claim a decisive defeat over Ms Le Pen and her ilk and congratulate himself on a gamble that paid off.

But the polls currently suggest that is not the direction France is heading in.

What are the possible outcomes?

This is an election like no other in France: campaign time is short, the electoral landscape is shaken, and so other scenarios cannot be excluded.

These include a paralysed National Assembly divided into three groups with no one party dominating it, or an alliance of mainstream parties to keep the hard-Right out of power. An absolute majority requires at least 289 seats.

Ms Le Pen’s National Rally could run a minority government if it wins the most seats without reaching that threshold, but 28-year-old party leader Mr Bardella has said he wants an absolute majority as without it he will not be able to carry out reforms.

Why has Emmanuel Macron called an election?

Critics of Mr Macron will argue this was a hubristic move that dooms his leadership and will hasten the rise of the hard-Right in France.

Ms Le Pen has for years been working hard to clean up her party’s image and style herself as the co-leader of a new party of government. Now that goal is tantalisingly close, thanks in large part to Mr Macron’s decision.

However, the French president was already under immense pressure from the National Rally due to its soaring popularity over the course of his presidency. In calling the election now, he has an opportunity to take the initiative and fight on his own terms.

And at first this tactic did seem effective: it initially threw the French Right into total disarray as they argued over the shape of their anti-Macron alliance.

Unfortunately for the president, it did not catch the French Left off-guard in the same way; they swiftly formed a cogent alliance which is consistently polling in second place, ahead of Mr Macron.