The leader of the National Rally (RN), Marine Le Pen, He made no comment on the election results on Sunday night.Only the party president, Jordan Bardella, spoke—very briefly—to celebrate the increase in the number of mayoralties. "It's the biggest gain" in the party's history. "Never before have the RN and its allies held so many elected positions in France," stated Bardella, the party's future presidential candidate if the courts uphold Le Pen's disqualification. Despite his words, neither Bardella's lackluster tone, nor Le Pen's silence, nor the overall atmosphere suggested a night of electoral victory. While the advance of the far right is undeniable, especially in the southeast of the country, the situation remains somewhat different. (Northern Catalonia and Occitania are the new fiefdoms of the RN) And in some northern areas, the majority of the municipalities it has won are in rural areas, in towns or small cities. National Rally only managed to win in one city with more than 100,000 inhabitants, Perpignan, where it already governed. And it secured Nice, where Éric Ciotti, leader of the UDR (Union of the Right), Le Pen's ally, won.

The first round of the municipal elections in FranceThe elections held on Sunday left a good number of city halls within reach of left-wing parties, mainly thanks to the strong showing of the left-wing coalitions—comprised primarily of Socialists and Greens—and the advance of La France Insoumise (LFI), Jean-Luc Mélenchon's radical left-wing party, which until now had a very strong local presence. However, these positive results could turn into failure in the second and final round, to be held next Sunday. Tensions between La France Insoumise and the other left-wing parties, especially the Socialist Party, could lead to important cities like Paris and Marseille, where the left could govern, falling into the hands of the right or the far right. In a two-round political system, if voters must choose between two left-wing parties in the second round, the progressive vote is split. That's why, in the last legislative elections, the main left-wing parties, including the insubordinate ones, presented joint candidacies under the name of the New Popular Front (NFP). However, this alliance is long since defunct, and the leader of the Socialist Party, Olivier Faure, warned this Monday that there will be no national pact with LFI for the second round of the municipal elections, although he is open to local agreements.

Is La France Insoumise (LFI) a far-left party? In a country where the government officially classifies parties into different political blocs, the answer is not innocuous. It could shape France's political future. The party, founded by Jean-Luc Mélenchon in 2016, has always been labeled radical left—a label the party embraces—and was already classified within the left-wing bloc. However, a circular published by the Interior Ministry on February 2nd, in anticipation of the municipal elections in March, places the party in the far-left bloc. "I don't make the classifications, but there's no mystery that they are far-left," Emmanuel Macron asserted. Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez—formerly the head of the Paris Police—justified the decision by citing criticism from the insubordinate to the police forces or the "systematic" use of motions of no confidence.

French police have arrested eleven people between yesterday and today in connection with the death on Saturday in Lyon of 23-year-old far-right activist Quentin Deranque, in a mass brawl between an ultra-right-wing group and an anti-fascist group that took place after a conference by Rima Has, a member of the European Parliament from the radical left-wing La France Insoumise (LFI). Left-wing parties, including La France Insoumise (LFI), have strongly condemned the young extremist's death, while right-wing and far-right parties point to the radical left as responsible. The investigation into voluntary manslaughter has not yet determined which group the young anti-fascists who allegedly kicked Deranque at least six times, causing his death, belong to, but all indications point to them being from Jeune Garde, an anti-fascist group founded by the MP and dissolved by the French government last year. unsubmissive Raphaël Arnault. In fact, two of those arrested are Arnault's parliamentary assistants.

Emmanuel Macron's second term as President of France is turning into an ordeal that, unless significant changes occur, could end with the presidency being handed to Marine Le Pen or someone from her party. The current situation in the country is Kafkaesque. Macron is trying to convince Sébastien Lecornu to reconsider and reverse his decision to resign as Prime Minister just 24 hours after presenting his government and less than a month after taking office. If the resignation is confirmed, Lecornu will be the fifth Prime Minister to resign from Macron's second term. Before him, Élisabeth Borne, Gabriel Attal, Michel Barnier, and François Bayrou have all failed. France is currently immersed in a serious institutional crisis that appears to be entrenched and from which there is no clear way out.