France's Far-Right Suffers Blow in Election

A left-wing coalition has won the most seats in France's second round of legislative elections, dealing a blow to the far-right which had hoped to build on gains in the first round of the ballot.

No one got an absolute majority in the 577-seat National Assembly, but official results put the leftist grouping New Popular Front in first place with 180 seats, ahead of the 160 seats of the centrist alliance of President Emmanuel Macron, who called the snap ballot a month ago.

One expert in French politics told Newsweek that the election has "deepened polarization" in France, while another said that Macron has been left "weakened."

In third place was the far-right National Rally and its allies at 140 seats, which while its best ever showing, fell well short of the 289 seats needed to control the parliament.

People took to the streets throughout France to celebrate the victory over the anti-immigration party with historical links to antisemitism and racism whose opponents feared would have given France its first far-right government since World War II.

However, the country at the heart of Europe and NATO has been plunged into the uncertainty of a hung parliament with no grouping gaining a majority.

Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, who is planning to resign later Monday, said that France is facing an "unprecedented political situation," the Associated Press reported.

In saying, "I didn't choose this dissolution," Attal appeared to take a swipe at the decision by Macron to call the election, which followed his group's defeat in the European Parliament elections by the party of Le Pen and her protégé, Jordan Bardella.

The NFP pushed Macron to give the left-wing alliance the first chance to form a government and propose a prime minister, with one of the coalition leaders, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, from La France Insoumise, saying it "is ready to govern."

Following last Sunday's first round results in which the National Rally won 33.4 percent of the national popular vote, third place finishers from the left and center dropped out to consolidate the vote against the far-right.

While the move by the left and center to act as a bulwark against the far-right has worked, the gamble by Macron to call an election in the first place has not, according to former French ambassador to the U.S. Gérard Araud.

"Macron has lost his bet for clarification from the electorate," said Araud in an emailed statement to Newsweek. "He is weakened, but resignation and realism are not his strong points." He predicted the aftermath of the election will see "a long crisis full of uncertainties and political instability."

A common occurrence in other parts of Europe, a coalition is foreign to France and would require a split in the NFP or Macron's centrists working with the center-left Socialist party, leaving out La France Insoumise, said Araud, a fellow from the Atlantic Council think tank.

"The coming weeks will indeed be a test to determine whether the left and the center are able to cooperate," he added.

Sébastien Maillard, associate fellow of the Europe program at London's Chatham House think tank, said that the hung parliament will force French political parties to compromise. "It's not a culture they have, compared to many other parliamentary regimes elsewhere in Europe," he told Newsweek.

"The horse-trading is going to be tough but power is shifting from the Elysee to the Assemblée Nationale, which is new under the Fifth Republic.

"France will weaken its leadership in the EU should this state of confusion last too long and the country now needs reconciliation after deepened polarization through these snap elections."