National Rally seen winning 37% of popular vote in first round of French snap election

FILE PHOTO: French far right leader Marine Le Pen, Eric Ciotti, contested leader of French conservative party Les Republicains (The Republicans - LR), and Sebastien Chenu, vice-president of the French far-right National Rally (Rassemblement National - RN) party are surrounded by journalist before a press conference by Jordan Bardella, President of the Rassemblement National party, to present policy priorities as part of the campaign for the upcoming French parliamentary elections, in Paris, France, June 24, 2024. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes/File Photo

PARIS (Reuters) - An opinion poll published in newspaper Les Echos on Friday said French far-right party National Rally (NR) further rose in its forecast and may reach as much as 37% of the popular vote, two days before the first voting round in parliamentary elections.

NR was up by 2% from the last publication of the poll compiled by OpinionWay a week ago, while Macron's centrist Together poll was seen reaching 20%, down by 2% from the last publication.

The New Popular Front leftwing alliance was seen reaching 28% of the vote, a level unchanged versus a week ago.

OpinionWay survey made no seat projections for France's next National Assembly which, due to the two-round majority voting system, could differ significantly from the measured popular vote.

BFM TV, in a different poll compiled by Elabe, said RN could potentially cross the 289-seat bar for an absolute majority, placing the party and its allies in a 260-295 seats range.

The final outcome will be known after a second round of voting on July 7 and is hard to predict at the current stage as it will largely depend on to what extend RN's rivals will team up and withdraw own runoff candidates to block the far right.

Prime Minister Gabriel Attal on Thursday accused RN leader Jordan Bardella of tolerating racist speech in the ranks of his far-right camp amid a heated last television debate before the vote - an accusation Bardella rejected.

(Reporting by Tassilo Hummel; Editing by Benoit Van Overstraeten)