Le Pen's National Rally lead race in French snap elections - polls

Marine Le Pen's far-right National Rally (RN) will dominate France's parliamentary elections, according to three polls, ahead of the leftwing Popular Front and President Emmanuel Macron's centrists.

A survey by pollster IFOP said the RN would secure 34 percent of the vote, while the Popular Front would reach 29 percent and Macron's Together bloc would get 22 percent.

Another poll by Harris Interactive put the RN at 33 percent, with the left at 26 percent and Macron's camp at 21 percent. A third poll had the results at 35, 27 and 20 respectively.

The simulation of the national popular vote does not allow for a direct forecast of the balance of power in France's next National Assembly, as the election on June 30 and July 7 is held as a two-round majority vote in each district.

The Harris poll, however, made rough seat projections and forecast 235 to 280 seats for RN and its allies, which would fall short of the 289 needed for an absolute majority but make it by far the largest bloc.

The RN has said 28-year-old Jordan Bardella would be its choice for prime minister, rather than long-time leader Marine Le Pen, who would be its candidate for the 2027 presidential election.

However, the French far-right leader Bardella said this week he would turn down the chance to be prime minister if voters do not hand his party an absolute majority in the parliamentary election.

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Despite the opinion polls seeing Bardella's eurosceptic, anti-immigration RN party winning the ballot, the absolute majority that would guarantee its ability to govern and pass laws without allies could be out of reach.

"If tomorrow I'm in a position to be appointed to the Matignon (prime minister's office) and I do not have an absolute majority because the French have not given me an absolute majority, I will refuse to be appointed," Bardella said on Tuesday.

Macron called for the snap election after his party was trounced by the RN in European elections.

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