How rise of French far-right shows democracy in UK depends on Keir Starmer delivering on his promises

But across the Channel, in the world’s seventh biggest economy, and the mainstay of the European Union since its inception in 1958 as the European Economic Community, the people have still to make their choice. Tomorrow, in picturesque villages and towns and grim urban housing estates, millions of French citizens will cast their second ballot in a parliamentary election that could change, not just their country, but Europe and the rest of the world.

President Emmanuel Macron’s snap election, called after his centrist alliance was trounced by the far-right in the European elections, was a huge gamble. If the National Rally party, buoyed by its resounding success in the first round of the two-part ballot, secure an absolute majority on Sunday, the far-right will take control of France’s parliament. Macron will be their hostage.

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Putin, secure in his Kremlin lair, will be buoyed by the election of a French government that is hostile to both the EU and Nato. Even if, as the polls now suggest, National Rally fails to win an overall majority, they are still likely to emerge as the biggest party. France will be a different country when the polls close tomorrow night at 6pm.

Last Sunday at seven minutes past six, I sat down on a hard, grey municipal chair to observe the counting of the first ballot of this epoch-making election in Duravel, a village in the Lot department of the Occitanie region. I joined around 25 residents to watch the maire (mayor), Gerard Calassou, carry out the most civilised and transparent election count I have witnessed in 40 years of observing elections, as a reporter, candidate or party activist.

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Each French village – or commune – has its own its polling station, just as we do here. But in France, the ballot is counted where it is cast, and as soon as the polls close. It is a very local affair, open to all to watch, with none of the heavy security or early morning exhaustion that characterise our counts. It may be less tense to watch a dozen councillors count 500 plus ballot papers into neat piles than stand behind tired poll workers sort through thousands of votes, but as the early evening sun shone through the open door, it felt much more democratic, egalitarian even.

A theatrical election process

French ballot papers are markedly different from ours. Each candidate has her own postcard-sized ballot paper with her photograph and party information. Careful piles are set out on a trestle table from where voters take a selection and then, in a curtained booth, place their secret choice into a blue envelope. After depositing their vote in a large Perspex ballot box, they sign a register to indicate they have voted.

The actual count is theatrical. The mayor goes through each pile of votes, candidate by candidate, speaking their name as he drops each ballot paper back into the Perspex box. As he says “Pradie” or “Decremps”, four tellers in front of him mark off each vote on large tally sheets. Mayor Calassou stopped only twice for a sip of water during the 30 minutes he articulated universal suffrage.

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My companion, far sharper than I at keeping count, whispered the tally after each candidate’s ballots had been read out. “Bougeard – socialist – has 107”, he said. “National Rally has 153”. His counting was as accurate as that of the four tellers. After a quick confab, the mayor announced the result. The sitting MP, Aurelien Pradie, a member of Les Républicains – France’s traditional conservative party – was the clear winner with 215 votes (40.4 per cent). Slavka Mihaylova of the far-right National Rally came second with 28.7 per cent. Macron’s man was humiliated with 42 votes – only 7.8 per cent.

Ignored by liberal elite

Observers wandered over to the tellers to take snaps of the tally forms. People shook the mayor’s hand for a job well done. At just before seven, people strolled out of the library, heading home for Sunday dinner. Duravel’s votes would be conveyed to the officials in the Lot department to be added to the rest. By nine o’clock that evening, France knew the national result. The National Rally under the leadership of Marine Le Pen had won 33 per cent of the popular vote and goes into tomorrow’s second round as the leading party. The left alliance, the New Popular Front, picked up 28 per cent. Macron’s Together bloc trailed with 21 per cent.

France’s electoral process, with each polling station responsible for counting the votes cast on its premises and citizens welcome to observe, is far more open – and civilised – than our centralised, closed-door counts that can drag on until the wee small hours, and beyond.

But as France has already shown, the current problem with Western representative democracy is not one of process, but of outcome. Across Europe and in the USA, people are turning to right-wing populists like Le Pen, Trump and Farage – not because they are small-minded racists, but because they feel ignored by the liberal elite, disenfranchised even. The new Labour government must take note.

Two days ago, millions gave Starmer that most precious of commodities – their vote. It is now his duty to repay that trust. He must govern effectively, with integrity. Our democracy depends on it.