French vote shows barriers down in alternatives to Left -PM

(ANSA) - ROME, JUL 1 - The first round of French elections shows that for the firs time the barriers have come down among forces that are alternative to the Left, Premier Giorgia Meloni said Monday citing support from some of the centre-right Republicain group for Marine Le Pen's rightwing National Rally (RN) which came top with 33% of the vote ahead of a leftwing alliance on 28% and President Emmanuel Macron's centrist group on 21%.
    Meloni underlined the fact that the "old barriers" between the alternative forces to the left are apparently being overcome in several countries and commented that "it seems to me that even in France we are going in this direction".
    She stressed: "For the first time Le Pen's party had allies already from the first round and for the first time it seems to me that even the Républicain are oriented not to participate in the so-called republican front, which in the past erected a cordon sanitaire to keep the Right out. (ANSA).