France was on Sunday bracing for a frenetic fortnight of election campaigning for snap polls called by President Emmanuel Macron to combat the far right, as star footballer Kylian Mbappe waded into the febrile environment with a warning not to vote for extremes.

Candidates had until 1600 GMT to register for the 577 seats in the lower house National Assembly ahead of the official start of campaigning from midnight for the June 30 first round. The decisive second round takes place on July 7.

The alliance led by centrist Macron, who called the snap polls some three years early after the far right trounced his party in EU Parliament elections, now has just under two weeks of campaigning to close what still appears to be a gaping gap to the far right.

The outcome of the poll remains far from clear, with many in France still baffled over why Macron called an election that could see the far-right National Rally (RN) leading the government and its leader Jordan Bardella, 28, as prime minister.

But another likely outcome is a hung parliament with no overall majority followed by weeks of coalition-building and potentially even........

© International Business Times