Increased far-right ranks prepare for French parliament

PARIS, July 10 (AFP): Dozens of freshly-elected French far-right lawmakers visited parliament Wednesday, as the left-wing alliance who beat them in the polls scrambled for a viable candidate to lead the government.
A broad coalition of Greens, Socialists, Communists and the hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) won most seats in Sunday's vote, dashing the far right's dreams of an absolute majority.
But Marine Le Pen's anti-immigration National Rally (RN) and allies still made undeniable progress in the National Assembly, growing from 89 seats in 2022 to 143 today.
Le Pen, a three-time presidential candidate re-elected to lead her party in parliament, accompanied RN parliamentarians to inspect their new workplace ahead of next week's opening session.
Victory "has only been postponed," she told reporters as she entered, complaining that what she dubbed "massive withdrawal manoeuvres" had "deprived us of the absolute majority".