French centrists must decide: support the left – or hand the keys of power to the far right? | Cole Stangler

Only a whole-hearted endorsement of the New Popular Front coalition can stop the National Rally in second-round voting

It was an impressive score for a coalition frantically cobbled together only three weeks ago. On Sunday, France's broad leftwing electoral alliance, the New Popular Front, won about 9m votes, behind Marine Le Pen's far-right National Rally (RN) but comfortably ahead of Emmanuel Macron and his allies.

As a result, French voters face a stark choice when they head back to the polls on 7 July: do they want some type of coalition government with a centre of gravity to the left of the current one, or do they want to give the far right the keys to state power for the first time since the second world war?

Whatever Macron was hoping for when he called the snap elections, this couldn't have been it. His wild gamble relied on the assumption that leftwing parties wouldn't unite - and they quickly proved him wrong. They agreed on a simple economic programme far more popular than what his floundering presidency has to offer: a rise in the minimum wage to 1,600 (1,400) a month after social security contributions, more investment in public services and the return of the wealth tax. And they positioned themselves as defenders of France's core democratic values, more effective opponents of the RN's immigrant-bashing and race-baiting than the president and his allies.