Marine Le Pen’s far right in shock over exit polls

Marine Le Pen’s far-right party has suffered a shock defeat in the French elections, according to exit polls.

His party, the National Rally (RN), was on track to become the first far-right government in France since World War II.

But exit polls released tonight saw the RN slip to third place behind a left-wing coalition that unexpectedly formed ahead of the snap election.

President Emmanuel Macron’s gamble seems to have succeeded in halting the advance of the extreme right.

But this comes at the cost of his own centrist alliance, Ensemble, falling to second place, prompting his Prime Minister Gabriel Attal to resign.

The New Popular Front (NFP) is leading with a projection of 172 to 205 seats, causing a major surprise for the RN which was widely expected to emerge victorious.

Surprise projections put Macron’s Ensemble alliance in second place with 150-175, while the RN is at 115-150.

This means that neither party is likely to win the 289 seats needed for an absolute majority.

Supporters of the left-wing party were seen celebrating with relief the exit poll result.

The lack of a majority for any alliance, however, has plunged the country into political and economic turmoil.

Final results are not expected until Sunday evening or Monday morning in these highly volatile early elections, called only four weeks ago in a huge gamble for Mr Macron.

The unpopular president is projected to have lost control of parliament.

Marine Le Pen’s far-right party has drastically increased the number of seats it holds in parliament, but has fallen far short of expectations.

Early parliamentary elections in France, a nuclear-armed country and a major economy, will impact the war in Ukraine, global diplomacy and Europe’s economic stability.

France now faces the prospect of weeks of political fighting to determine who will be prime minister and head the National Assembly.

And Mr Macron could find himself in the unusual position of leading the country alongside a prime minister who opposes most of his domestic policies.

French left-wing leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon called the projections “a huge relief for a majority of people in our country” and demanded the prime minister’s resignation.

Mr Mélenchon is the most prominent of the left-wing leaders who have come together unexpectedly in the run-up to the two-round election.

Those projections, if confirmed by official figures, would plunge a pillar of the European Union and its second-largest economy into intense uncertainty, with no clarity on who might partner Mr Macron as prime minister to govern France.

France’s leap into the political unknown comes at an inopportune time, with the Paris Olympics opening in less than three weeks.

A parliament without an absolute majority would be uncharted territory for modern France, and unlike other European countries that are more accustomed to coalition governments, France has no tradition of politicians from rival political camps coming together to form a functional majority.

Any cobbled-together majority risks being fragile and vulnerable to votes of no confidence that could bring it down.

Prolonged instability could increase suggestions from his opponents that Mr Macron should cut short his second and final term.

The French constitution prevents him from dissolving parliament again within the next 12 months, thus ruling out a possible chance of giving France more clarity.

Last week, protests broke out in Paris after the RN won the first round of elections.

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