"The first round of the parliamentary elections has taken place [in France]. They have two rounds, and the second one is likely to have been masterminded to manipulate the will of the voters during the first round. When some candidates can withdraw from the election after being talked into it by someone seeking to, as they say, win over conservatives and populists, it does not resemble democracy that much," Lavrov told Russian journalist Pavel Zarubin.
If there were only one round of elections in France, the country would face drastic changes, the minister added.
During the second round, 577 parliamentarians are being elected. At the end of the first round, the right-wingers from the National Rally (RN) of Marine Le Pen and Jordaan Bardella won with 33.15%. The left-wing New Popular Front came in second with 27.99%, while Emmanuel Macron's Ensemble coalition scored only 20.04%.
Immediately after the conclusion of the first round a week ago, Macron called to unite against the right, the left supported the idea. Third-placed candidates began withdrawing en masse in the hope of a protest vote by their supporters against the National Rally - 224 candidates did so.
As a result, candidates from only two coalitions were left in 406 constituencies, with candidates from the three preserving in only 89 constituencies, and in the rest the deputies were elected based on the results of the first round (those who immediately gained more than 50%).