Le Pen’s party blocked from power

Marine Le Pen endured a shock defeat at the hands of the hard-Left and Emmanuel Macron on Sunday night after French voters turned out in force to keep her party from power.

In disappointing results for the National Rally (RN) leader, the New Popular Front, an uneasy alliance of centre-Left, green and far-Left parties, claimed the most seats in the snap parliamentary election, winning 182 in the 577-seat Assembly.

Ms Le Pen said her victory had only been “deferred”. Meanwhile, Jordan Bardella, her 28-year-old party leader, blamed an “alliance of dishonour” between the Left and Mr Macron for blocking him from taking power as prime minister.

A high turnout suggested tactical voting for and anti-Le Pen voting pacts in more than 200 constituencies paid off for the Left and Mr Macron.

Mr Bardella said the results had “plunged France into the arms” of Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the hard-Left leader of France Unbowed, the dominant force in the victorious New Popular Front.

Mr Macron’s Ensemble (Together) alliance won 168 seats, confounding predictions of wipeout to come second after coming third in the first round.

RN won 143 seats and finished third, despite being the clear winner in the first round of the snap vote called by Mr Macron.

The French President was trounced by Ms Le Pen in June’s European elections.

Ms Le Pen had declared her party had “practically wiped out” Mr Macron after winning the first round of voting on June 30.

Power will now likely move away from the Elysée Palace to the French parliament as Mr Macron enters a period of “cohabitation” with a prime minister from the Left, which will leave him confined to a far lesser role, in charge of foreign and defence affairs.

Gabriel Attal, Mr Macron’s prime minister, said he would resign on Monday because he had no majority.

“We were able to hold on. And we’re still standing with three times as many members of parliament, as was initially believed by the first estimates,” Mr Attal said.

“We have to be ready to rebuild the country, because we are France, and nothing resists the French.”

Mr Mélenchon hailed a “result which was claimed to be impossible” and ruled out any alliance with Mr Macron.

Commentators suggested that was a warning to his centre-Left allies, the Socialist Party, not to strike any deal with Mr Macron, who enraged the Left by raising the retirement age to 64.

Mr Macron will hope to split the Socialists from France Unbowed and build a new majority but that is by no means certain.

New Popular Front had vowed a “total break” with Mr Macron’s unpopular pensions and welfare reforms before a victory, which leaves France facing a hung parliament three weeks before the Paris Olympics.

Turnout was the highest since 1981, reaching 60 per cent by 5pm when François Mitterrand was elected president.

Some hailed this as a return of the “Republican Front” first forged when Ms Le Pen’s father Jean-Marie faced Jacques Chirac in the run-off of the 2002 presidential elections and lost.

The IPSOS-Talon projections suggest that a concerted bid by Left-wing and pro-Macron centrists to forge tactical anti-RN voting pacts in more than 200 constituencies paid off.

Mr Bardella said, “In spite of it all this has been a major breakthrough for the National Rally”.

He said “improbable alliances” and “unnatural arrangements” between the Left and Mr Macron had “plunged France into the arms” of Mr Mélenchon.

While many remain flummoxed as to why Mr Macron chose to call snap elections after losing to the RN in European elections, he insisted afterwards that his aim was to “clarify” French politics, which they say he hopes will eventually leave three clear camps of hard Right, centre and hard Left.

Against all expectations, it appears his gamble ultimately paid off, although he has been left a lame duck in deadlocked France for the final three years of his term.

Mr Macron cannot dissolve parliament for another year.

Tensions were high before the exit polls were released. From Paris to Nantes, Lyon and Marseille, shopkeepers in major cities on Sunday boarded up shop windows in anticipation of protests and riots following the results.

In Paris, police warned local businesses along the busy retail strip of Rue de Rivoli to board up their windows in the event of election unrest and outbreaks of violence. Some shopkeepers had boarded up their windows ahead of the first round of voting on June 30 and never took them down.

Interior minister Gérald Darmanin mobilised 30,000 police and gendarmes across France, including 5,000 in Paris alone for the runoff vote. Authorities said they feared violent outbreaks from both far-Left and far-Right extremists.

The Elysée Palace said Mr Macron would wait for the “structuring” of the new Assembly before “taking the necessary decisions”, including over the next prime minister.