Hundreds of France election candidates withdraw amid pressure over tactical approach to stopping far right – Europe live

3.26pm BST

37% of voters want far right to get absolute majority: poll

A poll by Ifop has found that 37% of French voters want the National Rally to win an absolute majority of seats in the national assembly on Sunday.

2.33pm BST

Attal has also insisted there will never be an alliance with France Unbowed (LFI).

1.59pm BST

France’s prime minister has said nationwide efforts to prevent Marine Le Pen ’s National Rally (RN) winning an outright majority in parliament could succeed, after more than 200 candidates pulled out of Sunday’s legislative election runoff to avoid splitting the anti-far-right vote.

“We can avoid an absolute majority for the far right,” Gabriel Attal said on Wednesday, adding that 90% of candidates from President Emmanuel Macron ’s centrist camp had quit three-way races if they were in third with an RN candidate ahead of them.

Attal said centrist candidates were right to stand down even in favour of a rival from the radical-left France Unbowed (LFI), part of the NFP leftwing alliance. “Neither LFI or NFP can win an absolute majority,” he said. “RN can.”

He added: “What’s at stake is to do everything so that the extreme right does not have an absolute majority. It is not nice for some French to have to block … by voting in a way they did not want to. I say it’s our responsibility to do this.”

Read the full story .

1.53pm BST

Marie Dauchy , a politician from the far right National Rally, said she was violently attacked at a market and is suspending her campaign.

Marine Le Pen has expressed her support for the politician.

12.07pm BST

Here are the latest images from France.

11.03am BST

A tale of two elections: how angry voters in France and UK turned on their leaders

It was raining in Calais on election day. A thin, penetrating, miserable drizzle blowing in off the Channel that was entirely in keeping with the mood of a great many voters as they headed to the polls in France’s most momentous ballot in living memory.

“It’s all going to shit,” said Xavier Hembert, voting with his son Arthur on the rue Philippine de Hainaut, named after Edward III of England’s French-born wife, much loved here ever since she persuaded him not to decapitate the port’s Burghers in 1347.

“No one’s happy, we’re going round in circles. It feels like we’ve tried everything and now we’re lost. But people are right not to be happy. They vote, then nothing changes. So now we’re going to get the extremes. Whereas you’re coming to your senses.”

Twenty-four hours later and 30 miles away, Sue King, in Dover, was unconvinced. “I’m fed up with them everywhere,” she said outside a charity shop on a (briefly sunny) Biggin Street. “I’m annoyed and frustrated. They’re the same – in America, France, here.”

France and the UK – close neighbours, historic rivals, impossible friends – vote this week in elections likely to confirm a tidal wave of discontent against governments led by smartly dressed men overwhelmingly perceived as toxic and out of touch.

Read the story here.

Updated at 11.04am BST

10.14am BST

With centrists and left wing French figures aiming for a republican front on Sunday, the far right’s Marine Le Pen has dismissed rivals’ efforts, writing that “the political class gives an increasingly grotesque image of itself.”

9.55am BST

Sandrine Rousseau , from the Ecologists, said she is opposed to a coalition with members of Macron’s camp.

9.47am BST

Dominique Strauss-Kahn , the disgraced former managing director of the International Monetary Fund, gave an interview on French channel LCI yesterday evening.

In 2011, Strauss-Kahn was arrested in New York and accused of raping a hotel chambermaid. He denied the rape accusations, that were later dropped, and he subsequently settled a civil claim for an undisclosed sum. A French journalist also accused him of attempted rape, which he denied.

9.33am BST

Édouard Philippe , a former prime minister, indicated in an interview on TF1 this morning that he will vote for a communist candidate in his constituency in order to oppose the far right.

He reiterated his concerns about France Unbowed.

9.33am BST

Louis Aliot , vice president of the far right National Rally, said this morning that he believes French people are more afraid of France Unbowed than of his party.

9.09am BST

Gabriel Attal , the French prime minister and a Macron ally, has called for blocking the far right from getting a majority.

“Everything separates me from France Unbowed,” he said, noting however that the hard left party is not in a position to get a majority while the far right is in a situation where it could be in a position to govern.

9.08am BST

François Hollande , a former French president from the socialist party, has said that the New Popular Front has allowed to “rebalance” the left.

8.54am BST

221 candidates withdraw from French election

Yesterday at 6pm, candidates in France faced a deadline to register for Sunday’s second round of legislative elections.

Amid pressure for a republican front to limit the success of the far right, many candidates candidates withdrew for races.

According to Le Monde’s latest count this morning, 221 candidates have withdrawn from races since Sunday’s first round of elections.

By this morning, according to the newspaper, 94 three-way races are still expected to take place, and one four-way race.

Updated at 8.54am BST

8.54am BST

Welcome to the blog

Good morning and welcome back to the Europe blog.

Today we will be focusing on the latest in France, ahead of Sunday’s second round of elections.

Stay tuned and send your comments to lili.bayer@theguardian.com.