text:  The anti-immigration national rally scored historic gains in last Sunday's first round vote, giving Le Pen and the party's 28-year-old leader, Jordan Bardella, their first realistic chance of running the government and taking control of the National Assembly. However, after hundreds of rival candidates from centrist and leftist parties dropped out to give their allies a better chance of defeating the far right, Le Pen's hopes of winning an absolute majority seem less certain.