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

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.

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

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According to Le Monde’s latest count this morning, 221 candidates have withdrawn from races since Sunday’s first round of elections.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

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.