French parties rush to build anti-far right front

France’s political parties sought to build a united front aimed at blocking the path to government of Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally (RN) on Monday, after it made historic gains to win the first round of a parliamentary election.

The RN and its allies won Sunday’s round with 33% of the vote, followed by a left-wing bloc with 28% and well ahead of President Emmanuel Macron’s broad alliance of centrists, who scored just 22%, official results showed.

While financial...