There were 38 parties participating the EU elections. That doesn’t work either.
Our election system is based on a 2 rounds election. First you vote for your first choice. The first two get to the second round and we elect the one we prefer between the two.
When the system works it’s fine, but it can also be dangerous. Our left shattered because of that. So the parties are making alliances before the first round of elections to have a chance of being in the government.
In France we also have an History of voting against the far right. A good bunch of conservative Presidents were elected because the left helped them. This what we call “Vote républicain”, meaning “Vote to save the Republic against a fascist party”.
The conservatives making an alliance with the far right is most insulting action they could have taken. But TBH their party is dead now. They’ve been doing less than 10% in every major elections since the last 10 years.