WITH their own and France’s fates in the balance, candidates were making their last campaign pushes today for the first round of voting in its pivotal legislative election.

French President Emmanuel Macron’s centre-right grouping risks a potentially fatal beating at the hands of the surging far-right National Rally (RN) party.

With polls indicating the anti-immigration RN could greatly increase its representation in the National Assembly, the election could radically alter the trajectory of the European Union’s largest country and hamstring Mr Macron for the remainder of his presidential term.

Coming on the heels of a strong showing in European Parliament elections earlier this month, it also risks saddling the president with a National Rally prime minister, Jordan Bardella.

Mr Bardella, a 28-year-old protege of National Rally leader Marine Le Pen and with no governing experience, says he would use the position to stop Mr Macron from continuing to supply long-range weapons to Ukraine.

He cites fears that the weapons’ ability to strike targets in Russia could suck the nuclear-armed powers of France and Russia into direct confrontation.

But France’s two-round system of voting — with initial balloting on Sunday to thin down the field for decisive follow-up voting on July 7 — means the election’s ultimate outcome is very uncertain.

Mr Macron dissolved parliament’s lower house and called the early election in hopes of shoring up support for his government in the wake of its humiliating defeat in the June 9 European Parliament vote.

On the left of French politics, Mr Macron’s decision has had the effect of galvanising previously splintered parties into the New Popular Front, which has coalesced behind promises of massive public spending.

On the far-right, the National Rally has been bolstered by defections from the traditional right, which has shattered in the campaign shake-up. It could also draw voters from other far-right fringe parties.