| Will Marine Le Pen's far-right National Rally party get a majority in parliament and take over running France's government? In the end it's the only question that really matters after the first-round of the legislative election on Sunday, and it remains unanswered despite Le Pen's strong showing. There were a couple of lesser points that did get resolved: namely that the alliance of leftist parties didn't have a surprise surge that would have allowed it to take the reins of power and that a hung parliament remains a reasonable base case.  Marine Le Pen, leader of National Rally, campaigning. Photographer: Cyril Marcilhacy/Bloomberg For that to happen, parties not aligned with the National Rally need to come together. There was a good start on that on Sunday evening, but not total agreement. While the parties that make up the leftist New Popular Front said their candidates would stand down if they were in third place or worse in the more than 300 districts with three- or even four-way runoffs. French President Emmanuel Macron and his allies didn't go quite so far, but called for unity with other parties that share their democratic and republican philosophies. That seemed to exclude the far-left France Unbowed party, although it still isn't fully clear. And the center-right Republicans, who did somewhat better than expected in the first round, haven't called on their their voters to back any group in the next round if their candidate didn't make it to the runoff.
If all that seems too complicated, here's a primer on the French electoral system that lays out how it works. Meanwhile, we won't know if the calls to pull out have been heeded until 6 p.m. on Tuesday, the deadline for candidates to file the paperwork for the next round. That's when we should get a better sense of whether Le Pen will fall short or if squabbling among the other parties opens a path to an outright majority for the National Rally.
For now, on to the bartering. The usually prolix Macron stayed behind closed doors on Sunday evening, no doubt licking his wounds as the scale of Le Pen's triumph in the first round of legislative elections sank in. French markets rallied after Le Pen's National Rally party finished with a smaller margin of victory than indicated by polls. The optimism was, however, short-lived. Support for Le Pen and her National Rally party has increased since 2017 in 98.6% of France's municipalities in the first round of a snap election called earlier in June, according to Bloomberg analysis of data from France's Interior Ministry. Alice Weidel, the co-leader of Germany's right-wing AfD party, said the victory of Le Pen's National Rally in the first round of France's legislative election is something to emulate.
In non-political news, Atos SE's creditors reached an agreement with the company that will see them take control of the embattled French IT services company instead of an outside investor.
Air France-KLM is experiencing pressure on projected unit revenue this summer season at French units because passengers are avoiding Paris in the summer months to skirt possible disruptions and high prices during the Olympic Games. If you're already paying through the nose for your hotels, shouldn't you at least maximize what you're getting? Here's a strategy to do just that.  A suite at St. James in Paris feels like being in a countryside estate—but right near the city sights. | 
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