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00:00Sunday night in the National Rally headquarters was a sombre mood.
00:05They were hoping to win a majority and instead they came in third,
00:09left wondering what went wrong when victory had seemed so close.
00:14Enter the Republican Front.
00:16At the end of the first round of legislative voting,
00:19France was split almost in three.
00:21Left, centre and far right.
00:23But instead of dividing, the Left New Popular Front
00:26and the Presidential Centre Coalition agreed on one thing.
00:29They had to block the National Rally.
00:32After some tactical deal breaking,
00:34over 215 of their candidates withdrew in constituencies
00:38where the far right had a clear lead.
00:40And with clear success.
00:42When face to face with New Popular Front candidates,
00:45the National Rally lost 90 out of 152 seats.
00:49When up against the Presidential Coalition,
00:51they lost 105 out of 128.
00:54But according to this pollster, there was also another reason.
00:58The National Rally candidates themselves
01:03showed either that they weren't ready
01:05or they still had xenophobic or homophobic candidates among them.
01:08The party included candidates like Ludivine Daudi,
01:13who withdrew after a photo circulated of her wearing a Nazi cap.
01:17And Daniel Grenon, who caused outrage by declaring
01:20that people born in northern Africa and raised in France
01:23had no place holding high positions.
01:27Critics have also pointed to the unconvincing performance
01:30of many National Rally candidates,
01:32saying they appeared out of their depth in debates during the campaign.
01:36The party was also unable to expand its base.
01:39It struck a deal with Eric Ciotti, the Republican leader,
01:42but not the party, who cut ties with him
01:44when he profited an alliance between the two.
01:47Still, there were major wins for the party.
01:49With over 140 seats,
01:51they were up sizably from their previous high of 89
01:54and took home the most seats of any single party.