Paris, calm before the storm?

Описание: A walk on the canal before the election run off on Sunday. Suspense. Enjoy the peace. Answering a US friend's question.There are at least 2 similarities between the US and France right now: 1) "a lot of people are fed up and think a strongman can change their lives" and 2) "everything is very polarized, people refuse to listen to each other, it's volatile. Anything can happen. The media pollsters all predict the same basic results of Sunday's run off. To get an absolute majority in the House, a party must win 289 seats. Predictions: National Rally (far right) will get between 230 and 240 seats, The New Popular Front (left) will get a max of 180, Macron max 155, the LR Republicans (Gaullist) max 50. (Estimates are +/_ 12 seats.) If this happens, it's unlikely that Bardella (Nat Ral) will be PM next week, especially with the constitutional formalities such as Speaker elections on July 18th, but it's not impossible, depending on what happens after the elections. No one will have a majority, the left will probably break into warring factions, there will be wheeling and dealing to form alliances. The country may be ungovernable and there may be violence. With summer vacations coming, the dust probably won't settle enough to know anything for sure until September. So the mood is strange. People are scrambling to motivate voters and keep the Far right out of power. We hope the pollsters are on target and that sanity will prevail after the run off. A beautiful country, a beautiful city...