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Louise Thomas
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France’s far-right National Rally has failed to become the largest party at parliamentary elections, according to shock exit poll results, which forecast the left-wing New Popular Front coalition is in pole position.
In results which would deliver a bitter blow to Marine Le Pen, an exit poll by Ipsos suggested the NFP coalition will win between 172 and 192 seats, with the Emmanuel Macron-backing Ensemble group taking second place and Ms Le Pen’s party in third place.
Mr Macron took even his own allies by surprise in calling the snap election last month, after the anti-immigration National Rally made huge gains in European elections.
The president gambled that French voters would block the far right as they have in the past.
But the National Rally instead won a larger share than ever in the first round of voting on 30 June.
More than 200 candidates from the Macron-backing Ensemble alliance and left-wing New Popular Front stepped down in seats otherwise facing a three-way battle, in a so-called “republican front” against the far right.
France’s Hollande says leftist coalition ‘must realise what it has to do'
Former Socialist president Francois Hollande said: “The New Popular Front must realise what it has to do today.
“It is the strongest party in the National Assembly. It does not have an absolute majority. As I speak, it has a relative majority.”
Watch: French PM Attal says he will hand in his resignation on Monday
Outgoing PM claims centrists have defied expectations
Outgoing prime minister Gabriel Attal has suggested that centrists may have defied expectations in France’s parliamentary elections.
He said: “Tonight, the extremes have no absolute majority, thanks to our determination and the strength of our values. We [centrists] have three times more MPs than were predicted at the start of this campaign.
“Being prime minister was the honour of my life. This evening the political group that I represent no longer has a majority and tomorrow morning I will submit my resignation to the president.”
Macron must invite leftist coalition to govern, Melenchon claims
Jean-Luc Melenchon has insisted that Emmanuel Macron must invite his leftist New Popular Front coalition to govern, after exit polls suggested it had won the most seats in France’s snap elections.
Speaking after the shock exit polls, the France Unbowed (LFI) leader said: “The will of the people must be strictly respected. No arrangement would be acceptable. The defeat of the president and his coalition is clearly confirmed. The president must accept his defeat.
“The prime minister must go. The president must invite the New Popular Front to govern.”
‘Our victory has been merely delayed,’ claims Le Pen
Emmanuel Macron is in an “untenable” situation, Marine Le Pen has warned, insisting her far-right National Rally had lost only as a result of tactical voting between the leftist New Popular Front alliance and Mr Macron’s Ensemble group.
“Our victory has been merely delayed,” she told TF1 TV.
PM Attal to tender his resignation to Macron
Prime minister Gabriel Attal has that he will tender his resignation to Mr Macron, but said he was willing to carry out his functions as long as required.
It came as the Elysee Palace said the president himself would wait for the full picture to emerge in parliament before taking the necessary next decisions, but “will respect the choice of French people”.
Mr Attal became France’s youngest prime minister in history when he was appointed in January by Mr Macron at the age of 34, having previously served as minister for education.
Macron has suffered ‘resounding defeat’, warns Paris mayor
Paris’s Socialist mayor Anne Hidalgo has warned that Emmanuel Macron has suffered another “resounding defeat” despite France voting to see off the far right, according to exit poll predictions.
In a statement reported by Le Parisien, Ms Hidalgo said: “This evening, France escaped the worst thanks to the mobilisation of voters who chose the Republic, by preventing the RN from having a majority in the National Assembly. This is good news for our country, the far right is not in the majority.”
“However, no absolute majority has emerged from the results of the legislative elections,” Ms Hidalgo added.
“The situation of instability that we are going through has only one person responsible: Emmanuel Macron who, on the evening of June 9, deliberately made the choice to plunge the country into a major political crisis.
“This evening, he is once again suffering, after the European elections, a resounding defeat. He will have to draw all the consequences from this.”
Jordan Bardella speaks
The far-right National Rally’s leader, Jordan Bardella, said on Sunday that France had been “thrown into the hands of the far left” after his party failed to win the French parliamentary elections, according to exit polls.
“After deliberately paralysing our institutions, Emmanuel Macron has not pushed the country towards uncertainty and instability. As a result, he has deprived the French people of any response to their day-to-day difficulties for many months to come,” said Bardella.
He pledged his party will “amplify” its work in the opposition.
Watch: Jubilation among supporters as exit polls suggest ‘big victory’ for leftist New Popular Front
Blow for Le Pen
The projected results would be a major disappointment for Marine Le Pen’s nationalist, eurosceptic National Rally (RN).
The party, which had for weeks been projected to win the election, is on course for 115 to 155 seats.
The first official results are expected later on Sunday, with the results from most, if not all, constituencies likely to be in by the end of the day or the early hours of Monday.
Voters have punished Macron and his ruling alliance for a cost of living crisis and for failing public services, as well as over immigration and security.
Le Pen and her party tapped into those grievances, spreading their appeal way beyond their traditional strongholds along the Mediterranean coast and in the country’s northern rust belt.
But the leftwing alliance looks like it has edged them out of the first spot, in part thanks to limited cooperation by Macron’s centrist Together alliance and the left.
Le Pen’s rivals pulled more than 200 candidates out of three-way races in the second round in a bid to create a unified anti-RN vote.
The constitution mandates that there can be no new parliamentary election for another year.
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2024-07-08 07:15:00Z
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