France's parliamentary elections, round 2 — why they matter

French voters are gearing up to vote once again on Sunday, after bestowing another mandate on Emmanuel Macron in April and taking part in the first round of the parliamentary elections last weekend.

The principal second round battle will be fought between Macron’s centrist Ensemble and Jean-Luc Melenchon’s left-wing NUPES.

Last weekend’s ballot put Ensemble ahead of NUPES, but the advantage was razor-thin: Ensemble secured 25.75% of the popular vote to NUPES’ 25.66% nationwide. Thanks to…