Voters in France turned out en masse for the second round of parliamentary elections and rejected the far-right reducing the National Rally (RN) to third place.
After giving the RN a big win in the European elections and in the first round of this parliamentary election, the French people turned out in large numbers to stop them with perhaps 150 seats compared with predictions a week ago of nearly 300.
The left-wing alliance hastily brought together by Jean-Luc Mélenchon was on top, Emmanuel Macron’s centrists had staged an unexpected comeback, and the far-right National Rally (RN) fell from favorites to third.
But no one has seats enough to govern, and France now faces a hung parliament. According to the official results released early Monday, all three main blocs fell far short of the 289 seats needed to control the 577-seat National Assembly, the more powerful of France’s two legislative chambers.
Reuters says that the results were also a blow for centrist President Emmanuel Macron, who called the snap election to clarify the political landscape after his ticket took a battering at the hands of the RN in European Parliament elections last month.
He ended up with a hugely fragmented parliament, in what is set to weaken France’s role in the European Union and elsewhere abroad and make it hard for anyone to push through a domestic agenda.
Far-right defeat in the elections leaves France with a hung parliament
The election will leave parliament divided in three big groups – the left, centrists, and the far right – with hugely different platforms and no tradition at all of working together. What comes next is uncertain, per Reuters.
Republique Square in central Paris filled with crowds and a party atmosphere, with leftwing supporters playing drums, lighting flares, and chanting “We’ve won! We’ve won!”
“The will of the people must be strictly respected … the president must invite the New Popular Front to govern,” said Melenchon.
“Our country is facing an unprecedented political situation and is preparing to welcome the world in a few weeks,” said Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, who plans to offer his resignation later in the day.
With the Paris Olympics looming, Attal said he was ready to stay at his post “as long as duty demands.” Macron has three years remaining on his presidential term.
For the RN, the result was a far cry from weeks during which opinion polls consistently projected it would win comfortably. In his first reaction, RN leader Jordan Bardella called the cooperation between anti-RN forces a “disgraceful alliance” that he said would paralyze France.
