 races with three people running are called triangulars it means each candidate got more than 12 percent of the vote in the first round but candidates from macron's centrist party and the leftist coalition who are trailing in such runoffs are pulling out so as not to split the vote against the far right this is what's known as creating a republican front in an effort to block the anti-immigrant euroskeptic party the goal is to deny them an absolute majority in parliament