French President Emmanuel Macron's Renaissance party will not put up candidates in constituencies where they have little chance of winning, but will encourage its supporters to vote for other centrists, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal told broadcaster RTL on Monday.
"There are certain constituencies where we know that our candidates are not in the best position to prevent a victory of the extremists," Attal said. Renaissance would be supporting other candidates instead, he said.
Attal said that 65 of the 577 constituencies were in this category.
Responding to a surge in support for the right-wing National Rally led by Jordan Bardella and Marine Le Pen in European Parliament elections earlier this month, Macron called snap National Assembly elections to be held in two rounds on June 30 and July 7.
Voting for the National Assembly is by simple majority, with at least the top two candidates going through to the second round if no one gains a clear majority in the first round.
Analysts believe the voting format could play to Macron's advantage compared to the voting system in the European elections, which is based on proportional representation.
Both the leftist New Popular Front alliance, which includes La France Insoumise, described by Macron as extremist, and the National Rally, would be catastrophic if they were in government, Attal told RTL.