Ido Vock
Reporting from Bordeaux

Outside a polling station in Pessac, a suburb of Bordeaux, I met Gilles Galles and his partner Sylvie.

While Gilles is a long-time voter for the National Rally (RN), Sylvie’s RN votes in these elections were her first.

“I voted for Emmanuel Macron. I thought he would change things but the situation is catastrophic.”

“We’ve tried all the others – why not give the RN a try?”

Gilles says he backs the RN for its focus on “authority”. In previous presidential elections he voted for Marine Le Pen’s father, Jean-Marie, a convicted Holocaust denier, knowing he wouldn’t win.

Sylvie, who did not want to be photographed, says she is “not racist” and has nothing against foreigners who integrate into society, but adds that she doesn’t like her taxes “paying for illegal immigrants”.

Even so, she still harbours doubts about the party. She says 28-year-old Jordan Bardella may be too young to be prime minister.

Perhaps surprisingly for a man who has backed RN since he was old enough to vote, Gilles says Macron was wrong to dissolve parliament and give the far-right party its best shot yet at forming a government.

“France will be ungovernable,” he told me.

Image source, EPA

Aged 28, the leader of the far-right National Rally (RN) could be on the cusp of becoming France’s next prime minister.

Born in Seine-Saint-Denis near Paris in 1998, he joined RN when he was 17, and quickly became close to its leader Marine Le Pen.

In his early 20s he was made party spokesman, and in 2019 he became the party’s candidate in the European elections. He won and became the second youngest ever Member of the European Parliament, aged 23.

In 2022, he became RN president.

He comes across as a slick, presentable and well-spoken politician; he uses social media deftly, and has been a huge asset for Marine Le Pen.

Under his leadership, the RN won its highest share of the vote ever at the European elections earlier this month.

But what Bardella thinks, where he stands ideologically, what kind of person he is – these are unknowns. The French have the distinct feeling that the man they see is a package. Nicely-wrapped, but the contents are a mystery.

Read Jordan Bardella’s profile by our Paris correspondent here.

Katya Adler
BBC Europe editor in Fontainebleau

Marine Le Pen has spent 10 years trying to rid her party of its racist, extremist image. Her dream of appealing to more mainstream voters has come true amongst a big chunk of the electorate in France.

In Fontainebleau, a charming market town south of Paris, I met Geneviève, a former property manager. She has traditionally voted centre right, she told me, but this time RN seemed the obvious choice.

"I didn't use to vote for the National Rally. It scared me a bit... but now I think of my daughter, of my granddaughter. Things really need to change in France".

Geneviève was particularly enthusiastic about Jordan Bardella, Marine Le Pen’s 28-year-old, media-savvy protégé and candidate to be France’s next prime minister.

"I believe in youth and Bardella embodies it. He’s really a great guy. He doesn't scare me at all."

Constance, is just too young to vote (she turns 18 in a couple of weeks) but that didn’t stop her campaigning for RN at Fontainebleau’s Friday market: "I am proud to support the party because I think they are the future of France", she told me. As a young girl, she doesn’t feel safe in the streets and she believes Jordan Bardella will "defend women" against aggressors and make France safer.

Despite the success of RN’s “normalisation process” though, many in France are extremely worried that it could form France’s next government. For Flora, an environmental campaigner, France has never been "so threatened by the extreme right".

"I’m very, very anxious,” she told me. “It’s an appalling threat to our democracy, to women's rights, to minorities, to all vulnerable people".

Hugh Schofield
BBC News, Paris

First, the National Rally (RN) has an outright majority – or near enough to be able to count on the help of a few independent votes in the Assembly.

In that case, President Macron calls on Jordan Bardella to be prime minister. He accepts; the RN forms a government; and we enter a tense period of “cohabitation” with president and government in perpetual conflict.

The threat of violent demonstrations on the street is at maximum level.

Second, the RN wins most seats but not enough to command a majority in the Assembly.

Macron asks Bardella to form a government, but he refuses – knowing it would be toppled at the first vote of confidence.

Attempts are then launched to form a new coalition ranging from the conservative Republicans party, through the Macronite centre, to centre-left elements of the New Popular Front (NPF) alliance.

These talks are likely to stretch into weeks (and might never succeed) so Macron calls for a truce to ease tensions and let the country enjoy the Olympics and the summer break. The current government stays in place, with or without Prime Minister Attal.

This is by far the most likely outcome. The next three are improbable.

Third, the left-wing NPF pulls off a surprise victory.

Fourth, with no majority available for any grouping in parliament, Macron appoints a “technocratic” government made up of senior civil servants and other non-politicians.

Fifth, faced by a big RN victory and the failure of all his plans, Macron resigns.

Image source, Reuters

Emmanuel Macron made his surprise announcement in a dramatic TV address on 9 June - the day the French had taken part in European elections. It came barely an hour after polls showed the far-right National Rally party had trounced his centrist alliance.

Saying he couldn’t act as if nothing had happened, he called snap parliamentary elections. Macron’s own job isn’t affected, as these elections are separate from the presidential vote and his term runs for three more years.

Although the decision was a huge surprise, his father, Jean-Michel Macron, told a newspaper last week the president had mentioned the idea of an election two months ago because parliament had become "ungovernable".

Since Emmanuel Macron failed to secure an absolute majority at the last elections two years ago, he has been stuck in terms of passing new laws or reforms.

His own popularity is low, too, and his Ensemble alliance is running third in the polls. At best, he can hope to limit the damage and keep half of his MPs.

Macron said he was “responding” to the people and giving them the chance to bring about clarity – even if that means giving the RN the chance to govern.

Polling stations in France opened at 08:00 (07:00 BST) and will close at 18:00 (17:00 BST) in some rural locations and by 20:00 (19:00 BST) in the cities.

We’ll get the first projections pretty much as soon as the polls close.

A more complete picture will come a few hours later. By the end of the evening, we should have a good idea of the winners and the losers of the second round of France’s parliamentary elections.

Hugh Schofield
BBC News, Paris

French voters are at the polls for the third time in a month, and the country is on maximum alert because this is the day we learn if the far right National Rally (RN) is going to take over the government.

The chances of that seemed strong a week ago, after the first round. But they have receded because of withdrawals of candidates in around 200 constituencies, in order to concentrate the anti-RN vote.

But projections are not necessarily reliable, because no one knows to what extent voters will obey the calls of party leaders.

To form an anti-RN barrage, many centrists will have to vote for the far left (the biggest component is the New Popular Front), who they loathe; and many left-wingers will have to vote for the Macronites, who they equally loathe.

Meanwhile the far-right vote could be galvanised by a widespread sentiment that the RN – now clearly the biggest party in the land - is once again being kept from power by an establishment stitch-up.

Nothing is decided till the day is out.

Image source, Reuters

French voters are going to the polls for the second round of a snap parliamentary election called by President Emmanuel Macron four weeks ago.

They are voting today to elect 501 deputies of the Assemblée Nationale – the French parliament - with 76 other seats already decided in the first round.

For an absolute majority a party needs 289.

The first round eliminated all candidates who failed to win the support of 12.5% of locally registered voters.

In today’s round, anyone who scores a majority of the vote wins.

Laura Gozzi
Europe reporter

Bienvenue to our coverage of the second round of France’s parliamentary election.

President Emmanuel Macron may have only called this vote a month ago, but the campaign has been intense, and many French people will likely breathe a sigh of relief that it is coming to an end.

However, an even rockier time might begin for France, which will find itself either without a clear parliamentary majority, or navigating the uncharted waters of a far-right government.

At midday turnout was 26.63%, the highest figure in a parliamentary vote since 1981.

We will bring you all the latest news and analysis right here - from now until polls close at 20:00 (19:00 BST) and beyond.

Stay with us.